Texas Water Code 26.081 – Regional or Area-Wide Systems; General Policy
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(a) The legislature finds and declares that it is necessary to the health, safety, and welfare of the people of this state to implement the state policy to encourage and promote the development and use of regional and area-wide waste collection, treatment, and disposal systems to serve the waste disposal needs of the citizens of the state and to prevent pollution and maintain and enhance the quality of the water in the state.
(b) Within any standard metropolitan statistical area in the state, the commission is authorized to implement this policy in the manner and in accordance with the procedure provided in Sections 26.081 through 26.086 of this code.
Terms Used In Texas Water Code 26.081
- Commission: means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. 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
(c) In those portions of the state which are not within a standard metropolitan statistical area, the commission shall observe this state policy by encouraging interested and affected persons to cooperate in developing and using regional and area-wide systems. The commission may not use the procedure specified in Sections 26.081 through 26.086 of this code in these areas to implement this policy. However, this does not affect or diminish any authority which the commission may otherwise have and exercise under other provisions of this chapter.
(d) The term “standard metropolitan statistical area,” as used in this section, means an area consisting of a county or one or more contiguous counties which is officially designated as such by the United States Office of Management and Budget or its successor in this function.