By Bernsen S.B. No. 1645
77R6001 MI-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to limiting the water rights to be protected from an
1-3 indirect reuse permit.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 11.042(a), (b), and (c), Water Code, are
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) Under rules prescribed by the commission, a person[,
1-8 association of persons, corporation, water control and improvement
1-9 district, water improvement district, or irrigation district]
1-10 supplying stored or conserved water under contract as provided in
1-11 this chapter may use the bank and bed of any flowing natural stream
1-12 in the state to convey the water from the place of storage to the
1-13 place of use or to the diversion point of the 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 discharge
1-22 based on the use or availability of these return flows. Special
1-23 conditions may also be provided to help maintain instream uses and
1-24 freshwater inflows to bays and estuaries. A person wishing to
2-1 divert and reuse future increases of return flows derived from
2-2 privately owned groundwater must obtain authorization to reuse
2-3 increases in return flows before the increase.
2-4 (c) Except as otherwise provided in Subsection (a) of this
2-5 section, a person who wishes to convey and subsequently divert
2-6 return flows from a surface water right [water] in a watercourse or
2-7 stream must obtain the prior approval of the commission through a
2-8 bed and banks authorization. The authorization shall allow to be
2-9 diverted only the amount of water put into a watercourse or stream,
2-10 less carriage losses and subject to any special conditions that may
2-11 address the impact of the discharge, conveyance, and diversion on
2-12 existing permits, certified filings, or certificates of
2-13 adjudication granted subsequent to and based on the return flows
2-14 and on[,] instream uses[,] and freshwater inflows to bays and
2-15 estuaries. Water discharged into a watercourse or stream under
2-16 this chapter shall not cause a degradation of water quality to the
2-17 extent that the stream segment's classification would be lowered.
2-18 Authorizations under this section and water quality authorizations
2-19 may be approved in a consolidated permit proceeding.
2-20 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.
2-21 (b) The change in law made by this Act to Section 11.042(a),
2-22 Water Code, applies only to an authorization the application for
2-23 which is pending before the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
2-24 Commission on or is filed with the commission on or after September
2-25 1, 2001.