Texas Water Code 26.0286 – Procedures Applicable to Permits for Certain Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
(a) In this section:
(1) “Sole-source surface drinking water supply” means a body of surface water that is designated as a sole-source surface drinking water supply in rules adopted by the commission.
(2) “Protection zone” means an area so designated by commission rule under Subsection (c).
(3) “Liquid waste handling system” means a system in which fresh water or wastewater is used for transporting and land applying waste.
(b) The commission shall process an application for authorization to construct or operate a concentrated animal feeding operation as a specific permit under § 26.028 subject to the procedures provided by Subchapter M, Chapter 5, if, on the date the commission determines that the application is administratively complete, any part of a pen, lot, pond, or other type of control or retention facility or structure of the concentrated animal feeding operation is located or proposed to be located within the protection zone of a sole-source surface drinking water supply. For the purposes of this subsection, a land application area is not considered a control or retention facility.
Terms Used In Texas Water Code 26.0286
- Commission: means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Permit: means an order issued by the commission in accordance with the procedures prescribed in this chapter establishing the treatment which shall be given to wastes being discharged into or adjacent to any water in the state to preserve and enhance the quality of the water and specifying the conditions under which the discharge may be made. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Rule: includes regulation. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- water in the state: means groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state. See Texas Water Code 26.001
(c) For the purposes of this section only, when adopting rules under § 26.023 to set water quality standards for water in the state, the commission by rule shall designate a surface water body as a sole-source surface drinking water supply if that surface water body is identified as a public water supply in rules adopted by the commission under § 26.023 and is the sole source of supply of a public water supply system, exclusive of emergency water connections. At the same time, the commission shall designate as a protection zone any area within the watershed of a sole-source surface drinking water supply that is:
(1) within two miles of the normal pool elevation of a body of surface water that is a sole-source surface drinking water supply;
(2) within two miles of that part of a perennial stream that is:
(A) a tributary of a sole-source surface drinking water supply; and
(B) within three linear miles upstream of the normal pool elevation of a sole-source surface drinking water supply; or
(3) within two miles of that part of a stream that is a sole-source surface drinking water supply, extending three linear miles upstream from the water supply intake.
(d) This section does not apply to a poultry operation that does not use a liquid waste handling system.