By Chisum                                             H.B. No. 3131
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the use of the watercourses of the state for the
 1-3     discharge of treated wastewater.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 11.042(c), Subchapter B, Chapter 11,
 1-6     Water Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (c)  Except as otherwise provided in Subsection (a) of this
 1-8     section, a person who wishes to convey and subsequently divert
 1-9     water in a watercourse or stream must obtain the prior approval of
1-10     the commission through a bed and banks authorization.  The
1-11     authorization shall allow to be diverted only the amount of water
1-12     put into a watercourse or stream, less carriage losses and subject
1-13     to any special conditions that may address the impact of the
1-14     discharge, conveyance, and diversion on existing permits, certified
1-15     filings, or certificates of adjudication, instream uses, and
1-16     freshwater inflows to bays and estuaries.  Water discharged into a
1-17     watercourse or stream under this chapter shall not cause a
1-18     degradation of water quality to the extent that the stream
1-19     segment's classification would be lowered.  Water, including
1-20     treated wastewater, discharged into a watercourse in accordance
1-21     with the conditions of a discharge permit issued by the commission
 2-1     shall require no other public or private authorization to use the
 2-2     watercourse for such purpose.  Authorizations under this section
 2-3     and water quality authorizations may be approved in a consolidated
 2-4     permit proceeding.
 2-5           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.