By Bernsen                                            S.B. No. 1642
         77R7332 MI-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to delivering water down bed and banks.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1. Sections 11.042(a), (b), and (c), Water Code, are
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  Under rules prescribed by the commission, a person[,
 1-7     association of persons, corporation, water control and improvement
 1-8     district, water improvement district, or irrigation district
 1-9     supplying stored or conserved water under contract as provided in
1-10     this chapter] may use the bank and bed of any flowing natural
1-11     stream in the state to convey [the] water [from the place of
1-12     storage] to the place of use or to the diversion point of the
1-13     appropriator.
1-14           (b)  A person who wishes to discharge and then subsequently
1-15     divert and reuse the person's existing return flows derived from
1-16     privately owned groundwater must obtain prior authorization from
1-17     the commission for the diversion and the reuse of these return
1-18     flows.  The authorization may allow for the diversion and reuse by
1-19     the discharger of existing return flows, less carriage losses, and
1-20     shall be subject to special conditions if necessary to protect an
1-21     existing water right that was granted subsequent to the
1-22     commencement of the discharge of the return flows and based on the
1-23     use or availability of these return flows.  Special conditions may
1-24     also be provided to help maintain instream uses and freshwater
 2-1     inflows to bays and estuaries.  A person wishing to divert and
 2-2     reuse future increases of return flows derived from privately owned
 2-3     groundwater must obtain authorization to reuse increases in return
 2-4     flows before the increase.
 2-5           (c)  A [Except as otherwise provided in Subsection (a) of
 2-6     this section, a] person who wishes to convey and subsequently
 2-7     divert return flows from a surface water right in a watercourse or
 2-8     stream must obtain the prior approval of the commission through a
 2-9     bed and banks authorization.  The authorization shall allow to be
2-10     diverted only the amount of water put into a watercourse or stream,
2-11     less carriage losses and subject to any special conditions that may
2-12     address the impact of the discharge, conveyance, and diversion on
2-13     [existing permits, certified filings, or certificates of
2-14     adjudication,] instream uses, [and] freshwater inflows to bays and
2-15     estuaries, and existing water rights granted subsequent to the
2-16     water right from which the return flows originate and based on the
2-17     return flows.  Water discharged into a watercourse or stream under
2-18     this chapter shall not cause a degradation of water quality to the
2-19     extent that the stream segment's classification would be lowered.
2-20     Authorizations under this section and water quality authorizations
2-21     may be approved in a consolidated permit proceeding.
2-22           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.
2-23           (b)  The change in law made by this Act to Section 11.042(a),
2-24     Water Code, applies only to an authorization the application for
2-25     which is pending before the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
2-26     Commission on or is filed with the commission on or after September
2-27     1, 2001.