HBA-MPM H.B. 3749 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3749
By: Dukes
Environmental Regulation
3/30/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, there are landfills in Texas which contain unspecified amounts
of industrial hazardous waste which was deposited in the landfill prior to
lining and permitting requirements.  H.B. 3749 requires the Texas Natural
Resource Conservation Commission to require the owners of such landfills to
remove the waste and dispose of it according to current state regulation.
Additionally, the bill authorizes a court with proper jurisdiction to issue
an injunction to enjoin a violation or threatened violation.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
Commission in SECTION 1 of this bill. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Requires the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, by
rule, to require the owners of a landfill to exhume all industrial
hazardous waste contained in the landfills and deposit the waste in a
facility conforming to current statutes and regulations if the facility: 

_contains more than 500 barrels of industrial hazardous waste,
_was built before lining requirements, and
_has references to the industrial hazardous waste in its dead filing
documents. 

SECTION 2.  Authorizes a court with jurisdiction to issue an injunction to
enjoin the violation or threatened violation of this section.  Provides
that the venue is in the county in which the facility would be located.
Authorizes the county attorney or other attorney representing that county,
or the attorney general to initiate the action. 

SECTION 3.  Effective date:  September 1, 1999.

SECTION 4.  Emergency clause.