Bill Text: TX HB279 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to procedural requirements for uranium mining production area authorizations.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-11-12 - Filed [HB279 Detail]
Download: Texas-2025-HB279-Introduced.html
| 89R23 JAM-F | ||
| By: Guillen | H.B. No. 279 | |
|
|
||
|
|
||
| relating to procedural requirements for uranium mining production | ||
| area authorizations. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Section 27.0513(d), Water Code, is amended to | ||
| read as follows: | ||
| (d) Notwithstanding Sections 5.551, 5.556, 27.011, and | ||
| 27.018, an application for an authorization or an amendment to an | ||
| authorization that allows the permit holder to conduct mining and | ||
| restoration activities in production zones within the boundary | ||
| established in the permit is an uncontested matter not subject to a | ||
| contested case hearing or the hearing requirements of Chapter 2001, | ||
| Government Code, if: | ||
| (1) the authorization is for a production zone located | ||
| within the boundary of a permit that incorporates, for each | ||
| production zone addressed in the application, a range table of | ||
| groundwater quality restoration values used to measure groundwater | ||
| restoration by the commission; | ||
| (2) the application includes, for each production zone | ||
| addressed in the application, groundwater quality restoration | ||
| values falling at or below the upper limit of the range established | ||
| in Subdivision (1); and | ||
| (3) the authorization is for a production zone located | ||
| within the boundary of a permit that incorporates groundwater | ||
| baseline characteristics of the wells for the application required | ||
| by commission rule. | ||
| SECTION 2. Sections 27.0513(f) and (g), Water Code, are | ||
| repealed. | ||
| SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only | ||
| to an application for an authorization or an amendment to an | ||
| authorization that is submitted to the Texas Commission on | ||
| Environmental Quality on or after the effective date of this Act. | ||
| An application for an authorization or an amendment to an | ||
| authorization that was submitted to the commission before the | ||
| effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the | ||
| time the application or amendment was submitted, and the former law | ||
| is continued in effect for that purpose. | ||
| SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025. | ||
