This website will be unavailable from Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, June 3, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.
Amend CSSB 635 (house committee printing) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTION to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS accordingly:
SECTION ____. Subchapter B, Chapter 11, Water Code, is amended by adding Section 11.0392 to read as follows:
Sec. 11.0392. COMMISSION REVIEW OF CERTAIN RIVER AUTHORITY WATER MANAGEMENT PLANS. (a) In this section:
(1) "Authority" means a river authority to which this section applies under Subsection (b).
(2) "Firm water" means a supply of stored water that could be supplied without shortage during each year of a simulated repeat of the drought of record, while honoring all senior water rights. During a drought of record, the supply of water for firm water customers has a higher priority than that of interruptible water customers.
(3) "Interruptible water" means a stored supply of water for customers of an authority that must be curtailed before the authority curtails firm water supplies.
(b) This section applies only to a river authority whose water management plan consists of a reservoir operation plan for the operation of two water supply reservoirs and was:
(1) developed by an applicant for a permit under this chapter; and
(2) originally required by a court order adjudicating the water rights for those reservoirs.
(c) Before approving an authority's water management plan, the commission shall require that the plan:
(1) ensures that adequate firm water supplies are available to meet the existing and projected demands of firm water customers to the extent:
(A) provided by previously adjudicated water rights; and
(B) other supplies are not available to the authority to meet those firm water customer demands; and
(2) provides for curtailing water supplies under interruptible commitments before requesting that firm water customers institute voluntary drought contingency measures.