Amend CSHB 3335 (Senate committee report) by adding the
following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and
renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTION __. Subsection (a), Section 35.007, Water Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) The executive director and the executive administrator
shall meet periodically to identify, based on information gathered
by the commission and the Texas Water Development Board, those
areas of the state that are experiencing or that are expected to
experience, within the immediately following 50-year [25-year]
period, critical groundwater problems, including shortages of
surface water or groundwater, land subsidence resulting from
groundwater withdrawal, and contamination of groundwater supplies.
Not later than September 1, 2005, the commission, with assistance
and cooperation from the Texas Water Development Board, shall
complete the initial designation of priority groundwater
management areas across all major and minor aquifers of the state
for all areas that meet the criteria for that designation. The
studies may be prioritized considering information from the
regional planning process, information from the Texas Water
Development Board groundwater management areas and from
groundwater conservation districts, and any other information
available. After the initial designation of priority groundwater
management areas, the commission and the Texas Water Development
Board shall annually review the need for additional designations as
provided by this subsection.
SECTION __. Section 35.008, Water Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (j) to read as follows:
(j) The commission may adopt rules regarding:
(1) the creation of a district over all or part of a
priority groundwater management area that was designated as a
critical area under Chapter 35, Water Code, as that chapter existed
before September 1, 1997, or under other prior law; and
(2) the addition of all or part of the land in a
priority groundwater management area described by Subdivision (1)
to an existing district.
SECTION __. All governmental acts and proceedings,
including the adoption of rules, of the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality relating to the creation of a groundwater
conservation district over all or part of a priority groundwater
management area that was designated as a critical area under
Chapter 35, Water Code, as that chapter existed before September 1,
1997, or under other prior law, are validated in all respects as of
the dates on which they occurred.
SECTION __. Subsection (a), Section 35.007, Water Code, as
amended by this Act, applies only to a designation of a priority
groundwater management area made by the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality on or after the effective date of this Act. A
designation made before the effective date of this Act is governed
by the law in effect when the designation was made, and that law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SELIGER