85th Legislature Tracking Table

Texas Legislative Process Overview

The Texas Legislature meets in Austin every odd-numbered year (from January through May) to pass new laws. All legislation must undergo at least one public hearing in both a House and Senate committee before it can be passed into law. These hearings are the key opportunities for input to be provided to policymakers. Legislative committee hearings are held intensively from January through May of odd-numbered years and periodically outside of these regular sessions, as scheduled by the committee chairs.

This site is intended to provide links to and highlights of important water and environmental bills WEAT is tracking. WEAT actively tracks state legislation and testifies as appropriate through collaboration between our Executive Director Julie Nahrgang, WEAT President and leadership, and WEAT Knowledge Committees. Scroll down for WEAT's Bill Tracking Table for Texas' 85th Legislative Session.

85th Session Water Quality Bills
Bill	Sponsor	Summary	Status
HB 101	Craddick	Provisions for the design and construction of at least a 10 mgd reclaimed facility in Midland	Passed & Signed
HB 257	Hernandez	Texas Workforce Commission report of transferrable skills for military transition to employment	Passed & Signed
HB 2729	Lucio III	TX Workforce Commission to develop statewide inventory of certificates that can be earned in high school, with annual updates to the inventory	Passed & Signed
HB 2771	Phelan	Relating to the wastewater treatment permit application (removes $10 fee for on-site septic permits)	Passed & Signed
HB 3177	Lucio III	Relating to the delegation of uncontested matters to the executive director of the TCEQ	Passed & Signed
HB 3618	King, Tracy	Repeals synced TPDES permit expirations within the same watershed/river segment	Passed & Signed
SB 1105	Hinojosa	Moves $18 million reserve and about $2 million per year in future revenue from TCEQ’s Used Oil Recycling Account to TCEQ’s Water Management Account to fund broad range of water programs	Passed & Signed
SB 1289	Creighton	Modifies US iron and steel requirements for TWDB projects	Passed & Signed
HB 2377	Larson	Rules for groundwater district permits for brackish groundwater production	Passed, Vetoed
HB 2798	Ferrar	Harris Country to implement a reuse water pilot program for subsurface irrigation and toilet/urinal use of wastewater treated at a Harris Co. facility	Passed, Vetoed
HB 2943	Larson	Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) for conservation easements for water quality control and broadened CWSRF applicant eligibility	Passed, Vetoed
SB 746/HB 2517	Kolkhorst/Stephenson	Prohibits the permitting of Class B sludge with the addition of grit and grease waste	Did Not Pass
HB 2092	Morrison	Prohibits the land application permitting of Class B sludge with the addition of grit and grease trap waste including processed G&G trap waste	Did Not Pass
HB 1250	Wray	Allows Country Commissioners to prohibit land application of ALL classes of biosolids in Ellis County	Did Not Pass
HB 3642/SB 1724	Burns/Birdwell	Relating to a permit requirement for the land application of domestic septage	Did Not Pass
HB 3644/SB 1723	Burns/Birdwe	Relating to collection of soil monitoring samples from land application units where sewage sludge or domestic septage is applied	Did Not Pass
HB 98	Martinez	Newspaper notice requirements for TPDES permits	Did Not Pass
HB 1536/SB 2026	Farrar/ Rodriguez	TCEQ to study and report on green stormwater infrastructure	Did Not Pass
HB 3036	King, Tracy	Discharge permit restrictions of waste or pollutants into certain areas of Edwards Aquifer	Did Not Pass
HB 3467/SB 1796	Howard/Menendez	Discharge permit restrictions over certain segments of Edwards Aquifer	Did Not Pass
HB 4221	Elkins	Wastewater infrastructure assessments and reports to TCEQ	Did Not Pass
SB 1598	Miles	Discharge permits in low-income and minority communities	Did Not Pass
HB 1115	Dutton	Defines “affected person” (includes elected official) for purposes of a TCEQ contested case regarding dismissal of protests against certain environmental permit applications	Did Not Pass
HB 3004	Isaac	Dismissal of protests against certain decisions/actions by TCEQ on wastewater discharge permits	Did Not Pass
SB 1628	Estes	Replacement of contested case hearings for certain environmental permits with a petition for administrative review	Did Not Pass