HBA-SEP C.S.H.B. 3037 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3037 By: Walker Natural Resources 4/4/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law provides only minimum guidelines regarding the ability of groundwater conservation districts (district) to regulate the spacing and production of wells. As a result, districts must do their best to interpret what latitude they have in regard to regulating wells and enforcing those regulations. C.S.H.B. 3037 provides more explicit guidelines. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 3037 amends the Water Code to authorize a groundwater conservation district (district), by rule, to regulate: _regulate the spacing of water wells by requiring a well, with consideration of production capacity, pump size, or other characteristics related to the construction or operation of the well, to be spaced a certain distance from property lines or adjacent wells or adopting other spacing requirements; and _regulate the production of groundwater by limiting total annual production, the amount of water produced based on acreage or tract size, the amount of water which can be produced from a maximum number of acres assigned by the district to an authorized well site, the maximum amount of water which can be produced from a number of acres assigned by a district on an acre-foot-per-acre or gallons-per-minute basis for an authorized well site, or other production limits. Any spacing or production requirements adopted by a district do not apply to a dewatering or monitoring well drilled for mining purposes under a permit issued by the Railroad Commission of Texas. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 3037 modifies the original to provide that any spacing or production requirements adopted by a district do not apply to a dewatering or monitoring well drilled for mining purposes under a permit issued by the Railroad Commission of Texas.