78R13051 MI-F
By: Hilderbran, et al. H.B. No. 1630
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1630:
By: Flores C.S.H.B. No. 1630
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to compliance schedules for small community water systems
in accordance with public drinking water standards for certain
naturally occurring materials.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 341, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 341.0316 to read as follows:
Sec. 341.0316. COMPLIANCE WITH DRINKING WATER STANDARDS BY
SMALL COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS. (a) In this section:
(1) "Demonstrable public health benefit" means a
material health benefit affecting an entire community water system
as evidenced by natural disease rates highly distinguishable from
disease rates enhanced by levels of naturally occurring materials
in drinking water as represented by maximum contaminant levels
established by federal mandate.
(2) "Reasonably available alternate water supply"
means another water source, the cost of access to which is not equal
to or greater than 1.3 times the amount of the user's cost for the
user's existing water supply.
(3) "Small community water system" means an entity
that serves 10,000 customers or fewer.
(b) In adopting a rule to implement a federal drinking water
standard for the maximum contaminant level of such naturally
occurring materials as radionuclides and arsenic, the commission,
after consultation with the Texas Water Development Board and the
United States Environmental Protection Agency, shall issue
compliance schedules for small community water systems affected by
the federal standards, consistent with the demonstrable public
health benefit.
(c) The commission shall issue alternate compliance
schedules for small community water systems that cannot achieve
compliance in accordance with a schedule established under
Subsection (b) because they face exceptional physical or financial
circumstances. In adopting alternate compliance schedules, the
commission shall give special consideration to:
(1) the size, density, and median income of the
populations served by the system;
(2) the existence of, and costs associated with,
properly licensed facilities that treat, store, or dispose of waste
materials generated by water treatment systems and that are capable
of removing the naturally occurring materials; and
(3) the absence of any reasonably available alternate
water supply to the system to ensure the protection of public
health.
(d) The commission, in conjunction with the Texas Water
Development Board, the Texas Department of Agriculture, and state
agencies with expertise in the protection of public health, shall
conduct thorough studies on:
(1) the costs and benefits to the state of
implementing the federal drinking water standards as the
implementation directly relates to the estimated public health
benefit at a potentially affected small community water system;
(2) whether the federal standard reflects:
(A) the best available, peer-reviewed science
that establishes a direct cause-and-effect relationship between
long-term exposure of persons located within the small community
water system and comparable micro-levels of naturally occurring
materials being investigated; and
(B) proper oral ingestion studies to ensure that
the standard provides a demonstrable public health benefit;
(3) the costs of implementing the standards to the
state and to all community water systems in the state that are
affected by the federal standards, including capital costs of water
treatment, annual operating and maintenance costs of water
treatment, and costs associated with the proper and safe disposal
of hazardous and low-level radioactive wastes; and
(4) whether the employment of point-of-use technology
provides an economically reasonable and viable alternative for
small community water systems as a method of treatment for removal
or minimization of naturally occurring materials in groundwater
that exceeds the federal standards.
(e) The requirement for granting alternate compliance
schedules because of the exceptional physical or financial
circumstances does not apply:
(1) if the federal government pays all costs for
complying with the standards, including costs of the state, the
drinking water supplier, and the end point drinking water user; or
(2) to a small community water system that has entered
into a prior agreement or is under obligation to abandon completely
the use of groundwater by converting to surface water for its
drinking water supply.
(f) The commission and other agencies shall complete the
studies required by Subsection (d) not later than November 1, 2004.
The commission shall report to the legislature not later than
January 1, 2005, the commission's findings regarding the reasonably
available means for treating or removing naturally occurring
materials at the potentially affected small community water
systems. This subsection and Subsection (d) expire January 2,
2005.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect 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. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2003.