By: Seliger S.B. No. 1386
 
 
 
   
 
 
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.