|
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
relating to the application of new requirements for commercial |
|
underground injection control wells to be adopted by the Texas |
|
Commission on Environmental Quality. |
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
SECTION 1. (a) As soon as practicable after the effective |
|
date of this Act, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality |
|
shall 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. In this section: |
|
(1) "Commercial well" means a Class I injection well, |
|
as defined by commission rule, that a person may use to dispose of |
|
nonhazardous industrial solid wastes for a charge. The term does |
|
not include: |
|
(A) an injection well that is part of an |
|
integrated waste management unit of a captured facility; or |
|
(B) an injection well at which only waste from |
|
facilities owned or effectively controlled by the same person is |
|
disposed. |
|
(2) "Captured facility" means a manufacturing or |
|
production facility that generates an industrial solid waste or |
|
hazardous waste that is routinely stored, processed, or disposed of |
|
on a shared basis in an integrated waste management unit owned by, |
|
operated by, and located within a contiguous manufacturing complex. |
|
(b) The rules adopted under Subsection (a) of this section |
|
may not apply to an application for a permit for an injection well: |
|
(1) used solely for the injection of carbon dioxide; |
|
or |
|
(2) 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. (a) The Texas Commission on Environmental |
|
Quality shall suspend the permitting process for any pending |
|
application for a permit for a new commercial well that proposes to |
|
accept nonhazardous industrial waste and to which Section 1 of this |
|
Act applies until the rules adopted under that section take effect. |
|
(b) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall |
|
provide that the rules adopted under Section 1 of this Act apply to |
|
every application for a permit for a new commercial well that |
|
proposes to accept nonhazardous industrial waste and to which |
|
Section 1 of this Act applies that is filed on or after the |
|
effective date of this Act and every application for a permit for a |
|
new commercial well that proposes to accept nonhazardous industrial |
|
waste and to which Section 1 of this Act applies that is pending on |
|
the effective date of this Act. |
|
(c) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality may allow |
|
an applicant who filed such an application that is pending on the |
|
effective date of this Act to amend the application to conform to |
|
the rules adopted under Section 1 of this Act. |
|
SECTION 3. 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, 2009. |