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.