BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center C.S.S.B. 275
By: Nichols
Committee Report (Substituted)
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has authority over the Underground Injection Control Program, which oversees the disposal of certain wastewater into the ground via deep injection wells. TCEQ has rules governing the wells, but not for the surface facilities that receive and store the waste prior to injection.
C.S.S.B. 275 amends current law relating to the application of new requirements for commercial underground injection control wells to be adopted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in SECTION 1 of this bill.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. (a) Requires the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), as soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act, to adopt rules regulating the surface facilities associated with new commercial wells that propose to accept nonhazardous industrial waste for which a permit has not been issued on or before the effective date of this Act. Defines "commercial well" and "captured facility."
(b) Prohibits the rules adopted under Subsection (a) of this section from applying to an application for a permit for an injection well used solely for the sequestration or capture of carbon dioxide or for which the surface facilities are associated with a well for which a permit is issued before the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 2. Requires TCEQ to provide that the rules adopted under Section 1 of this Act apply to every application for a permit for a new commercial underground injection control well that proposes to accept industrial or municipal waste that is filed on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2009.