BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1688

By: Murr

Natural Resources

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The 79th Legislature passed S.B. 1354, which created a pilot program that established specific permitting and enforcement regulations for a certain designated portion of the Brazos River. The pilot program created specific regulations for individual or general permits for quarries, depending on their proximity to the area designated as the John Graves Scenic Riverway. Including the Coke Stevenson Scenic Riverway in the pilot program would help to protect the beds, bottoms, and banks of a stretch of the South Llano River from mining and quarrying activities. C.S.H.B. 1688 seeks to address this issue by including this scenic riverway in the pilot program.

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

C.S.H.B. 1688 amends the Water Code to include the Coke Stevenson Scenic Riverway, defined by the bill as the South Llano River in Kimble County, located upstream of the river's confluence with the North Llano River at the city of Junction, in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's pilot program for water quality protection areas. The bill postpones the pilot program's end, and the expiration of provisions governing the program, from September 1, 2025, to September 1, 2027. The bill reenacts provisions relating to the reclamation and restoration fund account.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1688 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

Whereas the introduced included a certain part of the North Llano River as part of the Coke Stevenson Scenic Riverway, the substitute does not include that river as part of the scenic riverway. The substitute includes provisions absent in the introduced that postpone the pilot program's end, and the expiration of provisions governing the program, from September 1, 2025, to September 1, 2027.