| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to priority groundwater management areas. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. 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 2. 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 3. 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 4. 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. |
|
|
SECTION 5. 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. |