79R6425 SMH-F
By: Puente H.B. No. 2425
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;
and
(2) an amendment that increases the area in which the
water is authorized to be used.
SECTION 3. The legislature finds that the changes in law
made by this Act to Section 11.122(b), Water Code, are consistent
with the former law governing amendments to water rights and the
legislature's intended interpretation and intended implementation
of Section 11.122(b), Water Code, before the effective date of this
Act. Accordingly, the changes in law made by this Act to Section
11.122(b), Water Code, apply 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.
SECTION 4. 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, 2005.