BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1009

By: Perry

Natural Resources

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties contend that guidelines that regulate the contents that a groundwater conservation district may require to be included in a well permit or permit amendment application are open-ended and permissive. S.B. 1009 seeks to address this issue by limiting the contents that a district may require to be included in such an application.

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.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 1009 amends the Water Code to limit the contents that a groundwater conservation district may require to be included in a well permit or permit amendment application to statutorily prescribed contents, to specify that the inclusion of such contents be as applicable under the district's rules, and to include as such content information reasonably related to an issue that a district is authorized to consider and information included in a rule of the district in effect on the date the application is submitted that specifies what information must be included in an application for a determination of administrative completeness.

S.B. 1009 replaces a provision establishing that an administratively complete application requires certain applicable information with a provision making an application administratively complete if it contains such information. The bill prohibits a district from requiring that additional information be included in an application for a determination of administrative completeness.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2017.