By: Nichols S.B. No. 275
 
 
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
  hazardous or 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 sequestration or capture 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.  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
  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.  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.