By:  Armbrister                                                   S.B. No. 517
	(In the Senate - Filed February 15, 2005; February 28, 2005, 
read first time and referred to Subcommittee on Agriculture and 
Coastal Resources; March 30, 2005, reported favorably to Committee 
on Natural Resources; April 11, 2005, reported favorably from 
Committee on Natural Resources by the following vote:  Yeas 10, 
Nays 0; April 11, 2005, sent to printer.)

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to studies or projects concerning coastal erosion that may be undertaken by the General Land Office in conjunction with qualified project partners. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 33.603, Natural Resources Code, is amended by amending Subsections (b) and (d) and adding Subsection (g) to read as follows: (b) The studies and projects shall address: (1) assessment of the feasibility, cost, and financing of different methods of avoiding, slowing, or remedying coastal erosion; (2) beneficial placement of dredged material where appropriate to replenish eroded public beach, bay shore, marsh, and dune areas; (3) public beach, bay shore, and marsh nourishment or restoration projects using sediments other than material from navigational or other dredging projects; (4) guidelines on grain size and toxicity level; (5) the economic, natural resource, and other benefits of coastal erosion projects; (6) the protection, revegetation, and restoration of dunes; (7) the planting of vegetation as a means of inhibiting bay shore erosion and projects developing and cultivating disease-resistant vegetation adapted to local conditions; (8) the construction or retrofitting of dams, jetties, groins, and other impoundment structures, provided that the structures include [with] sediment bypassing systems; (9) estimating the quantity and quality of sediment trapped by reservoirs, navigation channels, and placement areas and identification of other sediment sources; (10) the use of hard or soft structures on bay shorelines as a method[, giving preference to "soft" methods] of avoiding, slowing, or remedying erosion [in lieu of erecting hard or rigid shorefront structures]; (11) storm damage mitigation, post-storm damage assessment, and debris removal from public beaches; [and] (12) structural shoreline protection projects that use innovative technologies designed or engineered to minimize beach scour; and (13) other studies or projects the commissioner considers necessary or appropriate to implement this subchapter. (d) Except as provided by Subsections (b)(8) and (12), this [This] chapter does not authorize the construction or funding of a hard structure on or landward of a public beach. (g) Notwithstanding Subsection (d), each biennium the commissioner may undertake or provide funding for one or more erosion response demonstration projects if the state's portion of the shared project cost does not exceed one-tenth of the total amount appropriated to the land office for coastal erosion planning and response. SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
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