By: Seliger S.B. No. 313

(In the Senate - Filed January 4, 2011; February 2, 2011, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources; March 17, 2011, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 10, Nays 0; March 17, 2011, sent to printer.)

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 313 By: Seliger

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. 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 3. 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, 2011.

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