Amend the D. Miller amendment to SB 313 as follows:

(1)  In SECTION 2 of the amendment, in added Section 35.013(g-1), Water Code (page 4), strike lines 16-20 and substitute:

(2)  In the recital to SECTION 3 of the amendment (page 5, lines 2-3), strike "(e), and (f)" and substitute "and (e)".

(3)  In SECTION 3 of the amendment, in amended Section 36.0151, Water Code, strike added Subsection (f) (page 5, line 25, through page 6, line 2).

(4)  Add the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the amendment and renumber the remaining SECTIONS of the amendment accordingly:

SECTION ____.  Section 35.007(a), 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 ____.  Section 35.008, Water Code, is amended by adding Subsection (j) to read as follows:

SECTION ____.  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 ____.  Section 35.007(a), 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.