HBA-SEP H.B. 3037 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3037 By: Walker Natural Resources 3/26/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law provides only minimum guidelines regarding the ability of groundwater conservation districts (district) to regulate the spacing and production of wells. As a result, districts must do their best to interpret what latitude they have in regard to regulating wells and enforcing those regulations. House Bill 3037 provides more explicit guidelines. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 3037 amends the Water Code to authorize a groundwater conservation district (district), by rule, to: _regulate the spacing of water wells by requiring wells, with consideration of production capacity, pump size, or other characteristics related to the construction or operation of the well, to be spaced a certain distance from property lines or adjoining wells or other spacing requirements adopted by the board of directors of a district; and _regulate the production of groundwater by limiting total annual production, the amount of water produced based on acreage or tract, the amount of water which can be produced from a maximum number of acres assigned by the district to an authorized well site, the maximum amount of water which can be produced from a number of acres assigned by a district on an acre foot per acre or gallons per minute for an authorized well site, or other production limits adopted by the district. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.