By: Flores H.B. No. 2250
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the duties of the Rio Grande watermaster.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 11.3271, Water Code, is added to read as
follows:
Sec. 11.3271. DUTIES OF RIO GRANDE WATERMASTER. (a) This
section applies to the watermaster with jurisdiction for the Rio
Grande.
(b) The watermaster shall divide the water of the streams or
other sources of supply of the division in accordance with the
adjudicated water rights.
(c) The watermaster shall regulate or cause to be regulated
the controlling works of reservoirs and diversion works in time of
water shortage, as is necessary because of the rights existing in
the streams of his division, or as is necessary to prevent the waste
of water or its diversion, taking, storage, or use in excess of the
quantities to which the holders of water rights are lawfully
entitled.
(d) The watermaster may regulate the distribution of water
from any system of works that serves users whose rights have been
separately determined.
(e) The watermaster's duties shall not include activities
that relate to other programs of the commission, except as provided
in this section. The watermaster's duties shall include activities
that relate to situations of imminent threat to public health and
safety or the environment. The commission by rule shall define
situations of imminent threat under this section, and the rules
must address terrorism response.
(f) The watermaster, under a permit issued by and in
accordance with rules prescribed by the commission, may store for
release at a later time water in transit in a reservoir en route to
the place of use or point of diversion by the purchaser. In this
section, "water in transit" means water, not including state water,
that a person has pumped from an underground reservoir from the
point of discharge into the river to the place of use or the point of
diversion by a person who has contracted with the owner of the water
in transit to purchase, provided that the contract specify that the
contract is for the purchase and delivery of a specified amount of
water less the carriage losses incurred in transit, as described
and measured by commission rules.
SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.
(b) As soon as practicable after September 1, 2003, the
Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission shall adopt rules
necessary for the implementation of this Act and shall expedite any
application for a permit to be issued under Section 11.3271, Water
Code, as added by this Act.