LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 19, 2009

TO:	Honorable Byron Cook, Chair, House Committee on Environmental Regulation
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB213 by Shapleigh (Relating to a manifest system to record the transportation of certain liquid wastes.), As Engrossed

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would require that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) adopt rules that require a person who generates, collects, conveys, transports, processes, stores, or disposes of municipal sewage sludge, grit trap waste, or grease trap waste to use a sequentially numbered uniform transportation manifest as prescribed and issued by the TCEQ. In addition, the generator, transporter and disposer must retain copies of the manifests for not less than three years. The bill would also require the TCEQ to match the aggregate amounts of waste recorded on the manifests to amounts of waste reported annually.

Although the bill is likely to increase the workload of the TCEQ, this estimate assumes that the increase would not be significant, and that any additional costs to the agency could be absorbed using existing resources. 

Local Government Impact

Municipalities and counties will be required to supply information for the manifest to ensure waste is transported to an appropriate facility or site. The TCEQ reports that purchasing the manifest from an outside vendor is estimated to cost 15 cents per manifest. The cost to a local government would depend on the number of manifests that an entity would generate and keep on file.

Source Agencies:

582 Commission on Environmental Quality

LBB Staff:

JOB, SD, TL