HBA-NLM, ALS S.B. 938 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 938
By: Armbrister
Land & Resource Management
5/7/1999
Committee Report (Amended)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently in Texas, where the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a
municipality extends into a county that has a ground water conservation
district, an overlap of authority occurs between the district and the
municipality which can result in duplicate or conflicting regulation. This
is particularly true in instances in which a municipality uses its
authority to control land uses and development, rather than affect water
pollution. The purpose of this bill is to allow cities to exercise their
authority within their extraterritorial jurisdiction only if the water
district yields to the municipality's authority.   

S.B. 938 prevents a municipality with any extraterritorial jurisdiction in
a county that has at least one groundwater conservation district and is not
the county in which the majority of the municipality's corporate boundaries
are located from enforcing a water pollution control and abatement program
or from regulating nonpoint source water pollution in that county without
the consent of the county and the county's groundwater conservation
districts.   
 
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Subchapter E, Chapter 26, Water Code, by adding Section
26.181, as follows: 

Sec. 26.181.  LIMITATION ON WATER POLLUTION CONTROL AUTHORITY OF CERTAIN
MUNICIPALITIES. Prohibits a municipality, that has any part of its
extraterritorial jurisdiction in a county having at least one groundwater
conservation district and that is not the county in which the majority of
the territory inside the municipality's corporate boundaries is located,
from enforcing a water pollution control and abatement program or
regulating or controlling nonpoint source water pollution in that county
unless the municipality has the written consent of the county and the
groundwater conservation districts in that county.  

SECTION 2.Effective date: September 1, 1999. 

SECTION 3.Emergency clause. 
 
EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS

Amendment # 1

Amends S.B. 938 in SECTION 1 (proposed Section 26.181, Water Code) by
creating Subsections (a) and (b) from proposed text, and by adding
Subsection (c).  The new Subsection (c) provides that the provisions of
this section do not apply to a municipality located in a county in which a
subsidence district is located, or a municipality with a population of less
than 160,000 that is located in two counties.