Bill Text: TX HB2888 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to expedited release from a certificate of public convenience and necessity for water and sewer service for certain landowners.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-04-19 - Left pending in committee [HB2888 Detail]
Download: Texas-2011-HB2888-Introduced.html
82R12612 JXC-F | ||
By: Munoz, Jr. | H.B. No. 2888 |
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relating to expedited release from a certificate of public | ||
convenience and necessity for water and sewer service for certain | ||
landowners. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 13.254, Water Code, is amended by | ||
amending Subsections (a) and (a-2) and adding Subsection (a-5) to | ||
read as follows: | ||
(a) The commission at any time after notice and hearing may, | ||
on its own motion or on receipt of a petition described by this | ||
section [ |
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public convenience and necessity with the written consent of the | ||
certificate holder or if it finds that: | ||
(1) the certificate holder has never provided, is no | ||
longer providing, is incapable of providing, or has failed to | ||
provide continuous and adequate service in the area, or part of the | ||
area, covered by the certificate; | ||
(2) in an affected county as defined in Section | ||
16.341, the cost of providing service by the certificate holder is | ||
so prohibitively expensive as to constitute denial of service, | ||
provided that, for commercial developments or for residential | ||
developments started after September 1, 1997, in an affected county | ||
as defined in Section 16.341, the fact that the cost of obtaining | ||
service from the currently certificated retail public utility makes | ||
the development economically unfeasible does not render such cost | ||
prohibitively expensive in the absence of other relevant factors; | ||
(3) the certificate holder has agreed in writing to | ||
allow another retail public utility to provide service within its | ||
service area, except for an interim period, without amending its | ||
certificate; or | ||
(4) the certificate holder has failed to file a cease | ||
and desist action pursuant to Section 13.252 within 180 days of the | ||
date that it became aware that another retail public utility was | ||
providing service within its service area, unless the certificate | ||
holder demonstrates good cause for its failure to file such action | ||
within the 180 days. | ||
(a-2) A landowner is not entitled to make the election | ||
described in Subsection (a-1) but is entitled to contest the | ||
involuntary certification of its property in a hearing held by the | ||
commission if the landowner's property is located: | ||
(1) within the boundaries of any municipality or the | ||
extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality with a population | ||
of more than 500,000 and the municipality or retail public utility | ||
owned by the municipality is the holder of the certificate; or | ||
(2) in a platted subdivision actually receiving water | ||
or sewer service from a certificate holder other than a rural water | ||
supply corporation that owes a debt to the federal government under | ||
7 U.S.C. Section 1926. | ||
(a-5) Notwithstanding Subsection (a-1), a landowner may | ||
petition for expedited release under that subsection and is | ||
entitled to that release if: | ||
(1) the landowner's property is located in the | ||
boundaries of a municipality; | ||
(2) the certificate holder serving the landowner's | ||
property is a rural water supply corporation that owes a debt to the | ||
federal government under 7 U.S.C. Section 1926; and | ||
(3) in addition to the requirements of Subsection | ||
(a-1), the landowner demonstrates in the landowner's petition that | ||
the rural water supply corporation has refused to provide or is not | ||
capable of providing service in the same manner that the | ||
municipality would be required to provide if the municipality held | ||
the certificate for the landowner's property. | ||
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011. |