1-1     By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 509
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 15, 1999; February 16, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
 1-4     March 4, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 4, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the immunity from liability of certain property owners
 1-9     or operators if their property becomes environmentally
1-10     contaminated.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 361.753, Health and
1-13     Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-14           (a)  A person may apply to the commission for a certificate
1-15     confirming that the person is an innocent owner or operator.  The
1-16     application must include a complete site investigation report that
1-17     demonstrates that:
1-18                 (1)  the property has become contaminated as a result
1-19     of a release or migration of contaminants from a source or sources
1-20     not located on or at the property;
1-21                 (2)  the owner or operator has not caused or
1-22     contributed to the source or sources of the contamination referred
1-23     to in Subdivision (1); and
1-24                 (3)  if the applicant is a person who acquired the
1-25     property for which immunity is sought in the manner described by
1-26     Section 361.752(b), the owner or operator is eligible for immunity
1-27     under Section 361.752(b).
1-28           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-29     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-30     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-31     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-32     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-33     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-34     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-35                                  * * * * *