BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 824 |
By: Callegari |
Natural Resources |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
An accidental discharge or spill, such as a sanitary sewer overflow, that occurs at or from any activity or facility which causes or may cause pollution is currently required to be reported to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and, in certain cases, to local government officials and local media. Interested parties note that an informal survey of Texas utilities indicates that a large percentage of reported spills are less than 1,500 gallons and that the majority of such spills do not reach waters of the state or cause an environmental impact. These parties contend that the requirement to report accidental discharges or spills regardless of size creates a reporting burden for public utilities as well as an information management burden for TCEQ. This level of reporting also has the potential to mislead the public into thinking that a serious public health and safety issue exists every time an unauthorized discharge or spill is reported. C.S.H.B. 824 seeks to remedy this situation by creating an exemption from the reporting requirement for certain accidental sanitary sewer overflows.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in SECTIONS 1 and 2 of this bill.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 824 amends the Water Code to exempt an individual from requirements to notify the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), local government officials, and local media of certain accidental polluting or potentially polluting discharges or spills occurring at or from any activity or facility the individual is operating, is in charge of, or for which the individual is responsible if the accidental discharge or spill is a sanitary sewer overflow that is 1,000 gallons or less and is controlled or removed before the overflow enters water in Texas and before the overflow adversely affects a public or private source of drinking water. The bill expands the requirement for TCEQ by rule to specify both the conditions under which an individual must comply with the requirement to notify local government officials and local media of an accidental discharge or spill and the procedures for such notice to include specifying by that rule the conditions and procedures for complying with the requirement to notify TCEQ of such a discharge or spill. The bill requires TCEQ, not later than December 1, 2013, to adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions and specifies that its provisions apply only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of such a rule.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2013.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 824 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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