By: Armbrister S.C.R. No. 63 99S1135/1 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, The protection and maintenance of groundwater 1-2 quality is an important goal of the State of Texas; and 1-3 WHEREAS, The preservation, conservation, protection, and 1-4 natural or artificial recharge of groundwater resources or aquifers 1-5 is an equally important goal of the State of Texas; and 1-6 WHEREAS, The Texas Legislature recognizes that the quality of 1-7 groundwaters is differentiated from aquifer to aquifer; and 1-8 WHEREAS, By Senate Bill No. 1477, Chapter 626, Acts of the 1-9 73rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1993, as amended by House Bill 1-10 No. 3189, Chapter 612, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular 1-11 Session, 1995, the Texas Legislature created the Edwards Aquifer 1-12 Authority and vested in it primary jurisdiction to, among other 1-13 things, regulate withdrawals from and protect the water quality of 1-14 the Edwards Aquifer; and 1-15 WHEREAS, By various provisions in Senate Bill No. 1477, the 1-16 Texas Legislature vested in the Edwards Aquifer Authority authority 1-17 to oversee and implement projects for the artificial recharge of 1-18 the Edwards Aquifer to increase the supply of water to that aquifer 1-19 by naturally occurring channels or artificial means; and 1-20 WHEREAS, The Texas Legislature did not specifically state in 1-21 any of the provisions of Senate Bill No. 1477 that address 1-22 artificial recharge whether it intended the use of groundwaters, 1-23 surface waters, or both to increase the supply of waters to the 2-1 Edwards Aquifer; and 2-2 WHEREAS, The Texas Legislature finds that it is against the 2-3 public policy of this state to deplete one groundwater resource for 2-4 the benefit of another; and 2-5 WHEREAS, The Texas Legislature also finds that blending 2-6 groundwaters from more than one aquifer may degrade the quality of 2-7 the receiving or the injected groundwaters; now, therefore, be it 2-8 RESOLVED, That the 76th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-9 finds that the legislature did not contemplate or intend that 2-10 groundwaters from an aquifer other than the Edwards Aquifer be 2-11 available for use for the artificial recharge of the Edwards 2-12 Aquifer as that practice could cause the depletion of one 2-13 groundwater resource for the benefit of another or degrade the 2-14 receiving or injected groundwaters; and, be it further 2-15 RESOLVED, That the Texas Legislature intended and 2-16 contemplated that only surface waters would be available for use 2-17 for the artificial recharge of the Edwards Aquifer.