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78R8494 SMH-F

By:  Puente                                                       H.B. No. 3083



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the procedure for approval of certain amendments to a 
water right.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  (a)  By enacting Chapter 1010, Acts of the 75th 
Legislature, Regular Session, 1997 (S.B. No. 1), the legislature 
created a regional and state water planning, development, and 
management process designed to ensure that the state timely plans 
for and develops water supplies necessary to meet existing and 
future water supply demands.  S.B. No. 1 also addressed the need for 
timely amendments of existing water rights to help meet the state's 
water supply demands.
	(b)  The legislature finds that, by enacting S.B. No. 1 and 
that Act's amendment of Section 11.122(b), Water Code, the 
legislature established as the public policy of this state that an 
application for an amendment of a water right shall be granted 
promptly, without notice or public hearing, if the amendment does 
not result in an increase in the amount of water to be diverted or 
the authorized rate of diversion and if the requested change does 
not result in any greater impact on other water rights or the 
environment than the water right sought to be amended would have 
resulted in, assuming full exercise of the right as it existed 
before the requested amendment.
	(c)  The legislature finds that this established public 
policy of the state has been frustrated by challenges that assert 
that notice of and public hearing on such an application is 
required.
	(d)  The legislature declares that it continues to be the 
public policy of this state that such an application shall be 
granted promptly without notice or public hearing.
	SECTION 2.  Section 11.122(b), Water Code, is amended to 
read as follows:    
	(b)  The commission, without issuing notice under Section 
11.132 or holding a public hearing under Section 11.133, shall 
promptly approve an application for an amendment to a water right
[Subject to meeting all other applicable requirements of this 
chapter for the approval of an application, an amendment], except 
an amendment to a water right that increases the amount of water 
authorized to be diverted or the authorized rate of diversion, 
[shall be authorized] if the requested change will not cause 
adverse impact on other water right holders or the environment on 
the stream of greater magnitude than under circumstances in which 
the permit, certified filing, or certificate of adjudication that 
is sought to be amended was fully exercised according to its terms 
and conditions as they existed before the requested amendment.  An 
amendment to which this subsection applies shall be issued without 
regard to the amount of water used or consumed historically.  
Amendments to which this subsection applies include:
		(1)  an amendment adding an authorized purpose of use, 
unless the water right authorizes the water to be used for more than 
one consumptive use and expressly limits the amount or percentage 
of water that may be used for each consumptive use; and
		(2)  an amendment that increases the area in which the 
water is authorized to be used.
	SECTION 3.  (a)  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.
	(b)  This Act applies to an application to amend a water 
right that is filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental 
Quality before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.