By:  Edwards                                                      H.B. No. 41 





A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the location of concrete stockpiles at certain portable concrete crushing facilities. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 382.065, Health and Safety Code, is amended by amending Subsections (a) and (d) and by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows: (a) The commission by rule shall prohibit the operation of a concrete crushing facility, including a portable concrete crushing machine, within 440 yards of a building in use as a single or multifamily residence, school, or place of worship at the time the application for a permit to operate the facility at a site near the residence, school, or place of worship is filed with the commission. The measurement of distance for purposes of this subsection shall be taken from the point on the edge of a stockpile of concrete before, during, or after being crushed [the concrete crushing facility] that is nearest to the residence, school, or place of worship toward the point on the residence, school, or place of worship that is nearest the stockpile of concrete [crushing facility]. (d) Notwithstanding Subsections (b) and [Subsection] (c), Subsection (a) applies to a concrete crushing facility in a county with a population of 2.4 million or more [or in a county adjacent to such a county]. (e) The commission shall require a permit holder who operates a portable concrete crushing machine in violation of this section to cease operations unless the permit holder brings the operation into compliance with this section at the site at which the violation occurred or relocates the operation to a site in compliance with this section not later than the first anniversary of the date on which the permit holder receives notice of the violation. This subsection does not limit the commission's authority to further enforce this section under Chapter 7, Water Code. SECTION 2. (a) On or after the effective date of this Act, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall deny an application for the issuance, amendment, renewal, or transfer of a permit, registration, or permit by rule for a portable concrete crushing machine and may not issue, amend, renew, or transfer a permit, registration, or permit by rule for a portable concrete crushing machine if the commission determines that the machine would be operated or is being operated in violation of Section 382.065, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act. (b) A person operating a portable concrete crushing machine under a permit issued before the effective date of this Act whose operation of the machine is in violation of Section 382.065, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act, shall bring the operation of the machine into compliance with that section not later than September 1, 2006. SECTION 3. 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 on the 91st day after the last day of the legislative session.