Texas Water Code 26.017 – Cooperation
Terms Used In Texas Water Code 26.017
- Commission: means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- NPDES: means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System under which the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency can delegate permitting authority to the State of Texas in accordance with Section 402(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Pollution: means the alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state that renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation, or property or to public health, safety, or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- United States: includes a department, bureau, or other agency of the United States of America. 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
The commission shall:
(1) encourage voluntary cooperation by the people, cities, industries, associations, agricultural interests, and representatives of other interests in preserving the greatest possible utility of water in the state;
(2) encourage the formation and organization of cooperative groups, associations, cities, industries, and other water users for the purpose of providing a medium to discuss and formulate plans for attainment of water quality control;
(3) establish policies and procedures for securing close cooperation among state agencies that have water quality control functions;
(4) cooperate with the governments of the United States and other states and with official or unofficial agencies and organizations with respect to water quality control matters and with respect to formulation of interstate water quality control compacts or agreements, and when representation of state interests on a basin planning agency for water quality purposes is required under Section 3(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, or other federal legislation having a similar purpose, the representation shall include an officer or employee of the commission; and
(5) with respect to obtaining or administering the NPDES program in lieu of the government of the United States, not enter into any memorandum of agreement or other contractual relationship with or among state agencies or with the government of the United States which imposes any requirements upon the state other than or more stringent than those specifically set forth in Section 402(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended.