| TO: | Honorable Dennis Bonnen, Chair, House Committee on Environmental Regulation |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1858 by Armbrister (Relating to the authority of local governments to enforce a water pollution control and abatement program and establish standards and practices for water quality. ), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted |
The bill would amend Section 26.177 of the Water Code to authorize a local government to establish a water pollution control and abatement program for the territorial area of the entity on or after June 1, 2005, and to enforce a water pollution control and abatement program adopted before that date only to ensure compliance with pollution and degradation standards and practices established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and with the agency's rules.
The bill would require that a water pollution control and abatement program must encompass the entire territorial area of the local government and that a program adopted by a city may include only those areas within its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) that are not located within a county that has adopted a program. If a city were to adopt a water pollution control and abatement program in its ETJ and a county were to later adopt a program that includes any part of that ETJ, that portion of the city's ETJ would automatically be removed from the city's program.
A water pollution control and abatement program would not be effective and enforcable until TCEQ approves the program. TCEQ would be required to adopt rules allowing the establishment of a regional water pollution control and abatement program by three or more contiguous counties. The agency would be required, not later than September 1, 2006, to adopt rules necessary for administering the provisions of the bill.
Under Section 26.177, Water Code, as it currently exists, cities are authorized to establish a water pollution control and abatement program for the city. The bill would expand that authority to include the city's ETJ and to extend authority to other local governments, and would establish procedures for establishing and enforcing the program.
The bill would take effect immediately if it receives the required two-thirds vote in each house; otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2005.
TCEQ states that the agency could absorb within existing resources any increase in responsibilities resulting from passage of the bill.
| Source Agencies: | 582 Commission on Environmental Quality
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, WK, DLBa
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