SRC-TJG S.B. 56 78(1)BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research CenterS.B. 56
By: Armbrister
Natural Resources
7/17/2003
Committee Report (Amended)


DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

Currently, Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code allows groundwater
conservation districts to protect existing and historic users of the
aquifer. Section 36.113(e) allows a district to impose more restrictive
permit conditions on new permit applications and increased use by historic
users under certain conditions, while Section 36.116(b) allows districts
to preserve historic use before the effective date of any rules limiting
groundwater production. Impliedly, districts must determine who the
existing and historic users are and how much water they are using or have
used in order to implement these subsections. 

S.B. 56 provides clarification for certain districts overlying the Edwards
Aquifer, but which are not regulated by the Edwards Aquifer Authority, by
providing language that: (1) clarifies that such districts have express
authority to require the existing or historic users to prove the maximum
annual amount of groundwater that the user applied to a beneficial use
over a reasonable time period established by the district; and (2) sets
forth specific time periods to be used by such districts in establishing
existing or historic users. Presently, a district could utilize any time
period since no prescription is given under Chapter 36. Districts that
meet the requirements created by the bill must satisfy certain provisions
concerning the calculation of a user's amount of beneficial use as well as
follow a specific order when limiting or reducing the total amount of
permitted production of groundwater within its boundaries through
proportionate reductions. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to
a state officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Subchapter D, Chapter 36, Water Code, by adding Section
36.1132, as follows: 
 
Sec. 36.1132.  DEFINED EXISTING AND HISTORIC USE PERIODS FOR CERTAIN
DISTRICTS.  (a)  Provides that this section applies only to a groundwater
conservation district (district) created under Section 59, Article XVI,
Texas Constitution, that is, at least in part, adjacent to an
international border, has within its boundaries a part of an aquifer that
is regulated under Chapter 626, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, Regular
Session, 1993, and is not regulated under Chapter 626, Acts of the 73rd
Legislature, Regular Session, 1993. 
 
(b)  Authorizes a district, in implementing Section 36.113(e) or
36.116(b), to institute a process requiring an existing or historic user
to prove the maximum annual amount of groundwater that the user applied to
a beneficial use during the period from June 1, 1972, to December 31,
1991, or January 1, 1992, to January 7, 2003. 
 
(c)  Authorizes a district, in implementing Subsection (b), for a user who
produced groundwater only within the final year of the period established
under Subsection (b)(2), to issue a permit for existing or historic use
based on an  extrapolation of the user's beneficial use of groundwater to
the amount that would have been used in a full calendar year for the same
beneficial use. 
 
(d)  Requires a district, if the district limits or reduces total
permitted production within its boundaries in a manner consistent with its
certified groundwater district management plan under Section 36.1072, to
limit or reduce the amount of permitted production of groundwater through
proportionate reductions that will apply equally among classes of users in
the following order, with all limitations or reductions that can be made
in one class being made in that class before proceeding with limitations
or reductions in the next subsequent class  new users, except as provided
by Subdivision (2), the class of users described by Subsections (b)(1) and
(c), or any new user who was issued a permit by the district on or before
May 1, 2003, for the amount recognized in the permit, and the class of
users described by Subsection (b)(2). 
 
SECTION 2.  Effective date: immediately if it receives a vote of
two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by
Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution, or  the 91st day after the
last day of the legislative session. 

LIST OF COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS


COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1          


        Amend S.B. 56 as follows:

        (1) On page 2, line 7, strike "its" after "with", and insert "
this Chapter and the district's"