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Amend CSHB 2423 (Senate committee printing) as follows:                      
	(1)  In the recital to SECTION 3 of the bill (page 1, line 
34), strike "(h) through (l)" and substitute "(h) - (m)".
	(2)  In SECTION 3 of the bill, immediately following added 
Section 36.113(l), Water Code (page 2, between lines 44 and 45), 
insert the following:
	(m)  A district that requires an applicant to pay, at the 
time a historic or existing use permit application is filed, a fee 
based on the amount of groundwater requested in the application 
shall refund to the applicant, if the district grants a permit for 
an amount of groundwater less than the amount requested, the 
difference between the fee paid for the requested amount of 
groundwater and the fee required for the amount of groundwater 
authorized for use by the permit granted by the district.
	(3)  Between SECTIONS 3 and 4 of the bill (page 2, between 
lines 44 and 45), insert the following appropriately numbered 
SECTION and renumber subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
	SECTION __.  Amend Subchapter D, Chapter 36, Water Code, by 
adding Section 36.1135 to read as follows:
	Sec. 36.1135.  CERTAIN HISTORIC AND EXISTING USE PERMITS.  
(a)  A district shall grant an application for a historic or 
existing use permit filed not later than January 1, 2004, in 
accordance with rules enacted not later than December 1, 2003, that 
authorize the issuance of a permit for an existing or historic use, 
and for which a hearing report was prepared by the presiding officer 
of the district and considered in a public hearing not later than 
June 1, 2005.
	(b)  The district shall issue a permit for an application 
granted under Subsection (a) authorizing the production of 
groundwater for the amount and on the terms recommended by the 
hearing report, as amended on the record during the public hearing 
on the application.
	(c)  A district may not reduce the amount of water authorized 
for use by a permit issued in accordance with this section unless 
the total amount of groundwater authorized for use by historic and 
existing use permits exceeds the total calculated volume of 
groundwater that the relevant aquifer or groundwater management 
zone is capable of producing based on the best available scientific 
data.
	(d)  If the conditions of Subsection (c) are satisfied, the 
district may implement a pro rata reduction of the amount of 
groundwater production authorized by each historic and existing use 
permit so that the total groundwater production authorized by all 
of the historic and existing use permits does not exceed the total 
calculated volume of groundwater that the aquifer or groundwater 
management zone is capable of producing if the pro rata reduction 
is:
		(1)  approved by the Texas Water Development Board; and                
		(2)  based on the best available scientific data.                      
	(e)  An amendment to a permit issued in accordance with this 
section is not subject to well spacing requirements, production 
limits, or other applicable requirements unless the amendment 
increases the volume of groundwater authorized for use by the 
permit, in which case the requirement or limit applies only to the 
increased amount of groundwater authorized for use by the permit 
amendment.
	(f)  This section does not apply to a district located in a 
single county whose boundaries were expanded by the legislature on 
or after January 1, 2003, and whose boundaries are not coextensive 
with the county in which the district is located.