BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	C.S.S.B. 881
86R20507 BRG-F	By: Campbell
	Veteran Affairs & Border Security
	3/21/2019
	Committee Report (Substituted)

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

S.B. 881 enables military installations to cease pumping water from Edwards Aquifer themselves and instead receive water from the City of San Antonio. This bill would allow a utility owned by the City of San Antonio to withdraw water from Edwards Aquifer without a permit so long as the utility uses the groundwater to supply a military installation. The installation must also reduce its withdrawals from the aquifer by the amount received from the utility. In essence, this bill would let Joint Base San Antonio receive water from the City of San Antonio in lieu of pumping water itself in a way that will not count against the utility's capped amount. This bill is unlikely to face opposition as the amount of water removed from the aquifer will remain the same and will be subject to any applicable drought restrictions. No version of this bill was filed in any previous legislative session. (Original Author's/Sponsor's Statement of Intent)

C.S.S.B. 881 amends current law relating to withdrawals of water from the Edwards Aquifer to supply a military installation.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends the heading to Section 1.33, Chapter 626, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1993, to read as follows:

Sec. 1.33. WELL METERING AND PERMITTING EXEMPTIONS.

SECTION 2. Amends Section 1.33, Chapter 626, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1993, by adding Subsections (e), (f), and (g), as follows:

(e) Authorizes, in addition to permitted withdrawals from the aquifer, a municipally owned utility owned by the city of San Antonio, without a permit, to withdraw groundwater from the aquifer if the utility uses the ground water to supply a military installation with water for human consumption, irrigation, operations, mission support, or infrastructure maintenance and if the utility and the military installation enter into a contract requiring the installation to reduce its groundwater withdrawals from the aquifer by the same amount of withdrawn water the installation receives from the utility.

(f) Provides that Subsection (e) of this section does not alter the obligations of a military installation under a biological opinion issued by a federal agency.

(g) Prohibits the amount of water provided by a municipally owned utility to a military installation under Subsection (e) of this section from exceeding the maximum amount of water that the military installation is authorized to withdraw from the aquifer under a biological opinion issued by a federal agency.

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2019.