Both the Texas House and Senate have passed a version of an Omnibus Water Bill (HB3 and SB3) which attempt to address the future water needs for Texas. These bills are expected to be taken up in committee in the few remaining days of this legislative session.
The following Senate conferee's have been appointed:
Senate Conferees:Appointed (05/24/2007)
Averitt (Chair) | Eltife | Hegar | Hinojosa | Shapiro
There are aspects of these bills that are worthy of passage and aspects that, in my opinion, should be removed. Please contact your Senator, State Representative, and bill conferee's. Ask them to support the good parts (conservation and sustainable practices), and to remove the bad ones \ (new reservour designations).
Please refer to the sample memo below.
You can also get more information on the bill(s) and the list of House conferee's as it becomes available at OMNIBUS WATER BILL ONLINE
URGENT ACTION REQUESTED:
Send an email to your reps and the bill's committee members. Sample follows:
==================================================================================== OMNIBUS WATER BILL - fixit, then pass it! It has come to my attention that both the Texas House and Senate have passed a version of an Omnibus Water Bill (HB3 and SB3) which attempt to address the future water needs for Texas. These bills are expected to be taken up in committee in the few remaining days of this legislative session. In my opinion, there are aspects of these bills that are worthy of passage and aspects that are should be removed. Water conservation provisions and measures to make more efficient use of local rainfall such as rainwater harvesting should be our first priority in meeting water supply needs because they are usually the most cost-effective and environmentally sound way of doing so. Furthermore, language regarding environmental flows (water left in streams and rivers for fish, wildlife, and protection of bays and estuaries) has been agreed upon by many stakeholders and should remain in the final product. On the other hand, efforts to designate certain land areas in the state as “unique reservoir sites" are counter-productive to the above goals, unnecessary, and unfair to landowners whose property will be held hostage for an indefinite period of time. In my opinion supply-side solutions should, at this time, be limited to expansion of capacity at existing sights, fostering local rainwater harvesting, and promoting water reclamation (wetlands) and re-cycling. These solutions have the added benefit of reducing the risk of flash flooding. I applaud the removal of Mavin Nichols, Fastrill, and Bedias unique reservour sites from the House version of the bill. I urge you to delete the remaining reservoir site designations from the final bill and oppose any efforts to reinstate such designations before the final vote. I urge you to support sustainable surface and groundwater management provisions of the bill; and, in the event that some "unique reservour site" designations remain, I urge you to support landowner protection provisions and amendments. ====================================================================================
Best regards
Bob Fusinato
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