By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 509
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the immunity from liability of certain property owners
 1-2     or operators if their property becomes environmentally
 1-3     contaminated.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 361.753, Health and
 1-6     Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  A person may apply to the commission for a certificate
 1-8     confirming that the person is an innocent owner or operator.  The
 1-9     application must include a complete site investigation report that
1-10     demonstrates that:
1-11                 (1)  the property has become contaminated as a result
1-12     of a release or migration of contaminants from a source or sources
1-13     not located on or at the property;
1-14                 (2)  the owner or operator has not caused or
1-15     contributed to the source or sources of the contamination referred
1-16     to in Subdivision (1); and
1-17                 (3)  if the applicant is a person who acquired the
1-18     property for which immunity is sought in the manner described by
1-19     Section 361.752(b), the owner or operator is eligible for immunity
1-20     under Section 361.752(b).
1-21           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-2     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-3     passage, and it is so enacted.