By: Staples S.B. No. 1361
(In the Senate - Filed March 13, 2003; March 19, 2003, read
first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
April 22, 2003, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7,
Nays 4; April 22, 2003, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the purposes for which citizen evidence may be used by
the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsections (c) and (d), Section 7.0025, Water
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(c) The commission by rule may adopt criteria for the
executive director to use in evaluating the value and credibility
of information received from a private individual [and for use of
that information in an enforcement action].
(d) The commission may not use information received from a
private individual or testimony by the private individual regarding
that information as evidence in an enforcement action [A private
individual who submits information on which the commission relies
for all or part of an enforcement case may be called to testify in
the enforcement proceedings and is subject to all sanctions under
law for knowingly falsifying evidence. If the commission relies on
the information submitted by a private individual to prove an
enforcement case, any physical or sampling data must have been
collected or gathered in accordance with commission protocols].
SECTION 2. (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) The change in law made by this Act to Subsections (c) and
(d), Section 7.0025, Water Code, as amended by this Act, applies
only to an enforcement action initiated by the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality on or after the effective date of this Act.
An enforcement action initiated by the commission before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the action is initiated, and the former law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
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