Texas Water Code 26.045 – Pump-Out Facilities for Boat Sewage
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(a) In this section “boat,” “boat pump-out station,” “shoreside, mobile, or floating installation,” and “surface water in the state” have the meanings assigned by § 26.044.
Terms Used In Texas Water Code 26.045
- Commission: means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. See Texas Water Code 26.001
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Local government: means an incorporated city, a county, a river authority, or a water district or authority acting under Article III, § 52, or Article XVI, § 59 of the Texas Constitution. 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
(b) After a public hearing and after making every reasonable effort to bring about the establishment of an adequate number of boat pump-out stations on surface water in the state, the commission may enter an order requiring the establishment of boat pump-out stations by a local government that has any jurisdiction over at least a portion of the surface water in the state or over land immediately adjacent to the water.
(c) If a local government is authorized to issue authorization for the operation of shoreside, mobile, or floating installations, the local government may require the installation and operation of boat pump-out stations where necessary. The local government shall require the installation and operation of boat pump-out stations if required by the commission.
(d) A local government responsible for establishing boat pump-out stations may issue bonds or may use general revenue funds from normal operations to finance the construction and operation of the pump-out facilities. Pump-out stations established as a result of this section will be self-sustaining with respect to costs and revenues collected from users of said facilities, and local governments are authorized to levy reasonable, appropriate charges or fees to recover cost of installation and operation of the pump-out stations. Nothing in this section is to be construed to require any local government to rebate to the State of Texas funds collected pursuant to this program.
(e) The hearings required by this section and other acts of the commission in carrying out the provisions of this section shall be handled as provided in the rules of the commission.