By Nixon                                              S.B. No. 1858
         76R7473 WP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the powers of the Sabine River Authority.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 14(k), Chapter 110, Acts of the 51st
 1-5     Legislature, Regular Session, 1949 (Article 8280-133, Vernon's
 1-6     Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (k)  The district may provide for the control, storing and
 1-8     employment of said waters in the development and distribution of
 1-9     hydro-electric power, where such use may be economically
1-10     co-ordinated with other and superior uses, and subordinated to the
1-11     uses declared by law to be superior.  Notwithstanding any other
1-12     provision of law, the district may not control, store, or employ
1-13     the waters of the Toledo Bend Reservoir for the generation of
1-14     hydro-electric power if the mean sea level of the reservoir is
1-15     below one hundred sixty-eight feet, unless:
1-16                 (1)  the federal Energy Regulatory Commission or a
1-17     successor to that agency orders or requires a reduction in the
1-18     water level of the reservoir for purposes of inspecting or
1-19     repairing the dam;
1-20                 (2)  failure to use or sell the use of the waters of
1-21     the reservoir to generate hydro-electric power will result in a
1-22     supply of electric power that is not sufficient to meet the demand
1-23     of the firm or uninterruptible users of the power; or
1-24                 (3)  failure to use the waters of the reservoir for the
 2-1     generation of hydro-electric power will result in the failure to
 2-2     satisfy minimum down river flow requirements necessary to:
 2-3                       (A)  meet water sales from the diversion canals
 2-4     of the Sabine River channel and diversion system; and
 2-5                       (B)  deter saltwater encroachment.
 2-6           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-11     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-12     passage, and it is so enacted.