BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 928 |
By: Guillen |
Natural Resources |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties note that in recent years many areas of Texas have experienced some level of drought. Drought planning and response involves multiple agencies and includes the requirement that wholesale and retail public water suppliers develop drought contingency plans to help address water shortages and drought. The interested parties contend, however, that there is a lack of communication between water suppliers and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regarding changes in a supplier's drought response and that this has an impact on the state's ability to evaluate how well water suppliers are managing reduced water supply conditions. C.S.H.B. 928 seeks to address these issues.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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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 SECTION 2 of this bill.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 928 amends the Water Code to authorize a wholesale or retail public water supplier or irrigation district to review and update the supplier's or district's drought contingency plan and submit to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) the reviewed or updated plan. The bill authorizes a wholesale or retail public water supplier or irrigation district to include in each reviewed or updated drought contingency plan submitted to TCEQ an evaluation of the effectiveness of strategies in the plan that were implemented by the supplier or district during any previous period of significant drought. The bill authorizes TCEQ by rule to define "significant drought" for this purpose. The bill requires a wholesale or retail public water supplier to notify TCEQ not later than the fifth business day after the date the supplier implements, changes the manner of implementing, or ceases to implement a mandatory provision of the supplier's drought contingency plan and requires TCEQ by rule to establish criteria for determining the actions that must be reported. The bill requires TCEQ to maintain on its website a list of wholesale and retail public water suppliers that are currently implementing a drought contingency plan that displays for each supplier the degree of drought severity in the county or counties in which the service area of the supplier is located, whether the service area of the supplier is in a county subject to a declaration of a state of disaster due to drought conditions, and the drought response stage the supplier is implementing. The bill requires TCEQ, as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, to adopt rules as necessary to implement these provisions.
C.S.H.B. 928 requires the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), in coordination with TCEQ and the Water Conservation Advisory Council, to regularly review and update the water conservation best management practices guide developed by the water conservation implementation task force and include in the guide best management practices for drought response. The bill requires the TWDB to make the guide available on its website. The bill specifies that the new technologies the council is required to monitor for possible inclusion by the TWDB as best management practices in the guide are new water conservation technologies. The bill requires the council, in order to assist with drought preparedness and response, to monitor and recommend strategies for responding to drought, to monitor new drought response technologies for possible inclusion by the TWDB as best management practices in the guide, and to recommend methodologies for conducting drought contingency plan evaluations.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2015.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 928 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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