Texas Water Code 26.084 – Actions Available to Commission After Designations of Systems
(a) After the commission has entered an order as authorized in § 26.083 of this code, the commission may, after public hearing and after giving notice of the hearing to the persons who in the judgment of the commission may be affected, take any one or more of the following actions:
(1) enter an order requiring any person discharging or proposing to discharge waste into or adjacent to the water in the state in an area defined in an order entered under § 26.082 of this code to use a regional or area-wide system designated under § 26.083 of this code for the disposal of his waste;
(2) refuse to grant any permits for the discharge of waste or to approve any plans for the construction or material alteration of any sewer system, treatment facility, or disposal system in an area defined in an order entered under § 26.082 of this code unless the permits or plans comply and are consistent with any orders entered under Sections 26.081 through 26.086 of this code; or
(3) cancel or suspend any permit, or amend any permit in any particular, which authorizes the discharge of waste in an area defined in an order entered under § 26.082 of this code.
(b) Before exercising the authority granted in this section, the commission shall find affirmatively:
(1) that there is an existing or proposed regional or area-wide system designated under § 26.083 of this code which is capable or which in the reasonably foreseeable future will be capable of serving the waste collection, treatment, or disposal needs of the person or persons who are the subject of an action taken by the commission under this section;
(2) that the owner or operator of the designated regional or area-wide system is agreeable to providing the service;
(3) that it is feasible for the service to be provided on the basis of waste collection, treatment, and disposal technology, engineering, financial, and related considerations existing at the time, exclusive of any loss of revenue from any existing or proposed waste collection, treatment, or disposal systems in which the person or persons who are the subject of an action taken under this section have an interest;
(4) that inclusion of the person or persons who are the subject of an action taken by the commission under this section will not suffer undue financial hardship as a result of inclusion in a regional or area-wide system; and
(5) that a majority of the votes cast in any election held under § 26.087 of this code favor the creation of the regional or area-wide system or systems operated by the designated regional entity.
Terms Used In Texas Water Code 26.084
- Commission: means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Disposal system: means any system for disposing of waste, including sewer systems and treatment facilities. 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
- Person: means an individual, association, partnership, corporation, municipality, state or federal agency, or an agent or employee thereof. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Sewer system: means pipelines, conduits, storm sewers, canals, pumping stations, force mains, and all other constructions, devices, and appurtenant appliances used to transport waste. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- To discharge: includes to deposit, conduct, drain, emit, throw, run, allow to seep, or otherwise release or dispose of, or to allow, permit, or suffer any of these acts or omissions. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Treatment facility: means any plant, disposal field, lagoon, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfills, or other facility installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, or stabilizing waste. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- 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) An action taken by the commission under § 26.085 of this code, excluding any person or persons from a regional or area-wide system because the person or persons will suffer undue financial hardship as a result of inclusion in the regional or area-wide system, shall be subject to a review at a later time determined by the commission in accordance with the criteria set out in this section, not to exceed three years from the date of exclusion.
(d) If a person or persons excluded from a regional or area-wide system fail to operate the excluded facilities in a manner that will comply with its permits, the permits shall be subject to cancellation after review by the commission, and the facilities may become a part of the regional or area-wide system.