Eckhardt Bill’s New Office Weighs In On Permits Within 3 Miles

The text as introduced · 717 words

89R4421 KRM-F

By: Eckhardt, et al.
S.B. No. 561

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the creation of the Office of Environmental Justice

within the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Chapter 5, Water Code, is amended by adding

Subchapter G-1 to read as follows:

SUBCHAPTER G-1. OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Sec. 5.291. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

(1) "Environmental justice community" means a United

States census block group, as determined in accordance with the

most recent United States census, for which:

(A) 30 percent or more of the

noninstitutionalized population consists of persons who have an

income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level; or

(B) 50 percent or more of the population consists

of members of racial minority or ethnic minority groups.

(2) "Office" means the Office of Environmental

Justice.

(3) "Permit" has the meaning assigned by Section

5.752. The term includes an original permit, permit renewal, or

permit amendment.

(4) "Permitted facility" means a facility required to

obtain a permit under:

(A) Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code;

(B) Chapter 382, Health and Safety Code; or

(C) Chapter 26 or 27 of this code.

Sec. 5.292. CREATION AND GENERAL RESPONSIBILITY OF OFFICE

OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE. The Office of Environmental Justice is

created within the commission to protect the public health, general

welfare, and physical property of environmental justice

communities in regard to the issuance of permits.

Sec. 5.293. RECOMMENDATION ON PERMIT. (a) In this section,

"affected environmental justice community" means an environmental

justice community within three miles of a proposed or existing

permitted facility.

(b) This section applies only to an application for a permit

related to a proposed or existing permitted facility located within

three miles of an environmental justice community.

(c) The office shall provide a recommendation to the

commission on whether a permit should be issued. In making the

recommendation, the office shall consider:

(1) whether the cumulative effects of pollution from

the proposed permitted facility or change to an existing facility

on the affected environmental justice community exceed the

statewide average; and

(2) any existing or anticipated vulnerabilities in the

affected environmental justice community, including:

(A) existing pollution levels in the affected

environmental justice community and exposure of the residents of

that community to those pollutants;

(B) limited access to health care by residents of

the affected environmental justice community;

(C) health factors of the residents of the

affected environmental justice community, including the prevalence

of:

(i) asthma and other respiratory diseases;

and

(ii) cancer; and

(D) proximity of the proposed permitted facility

to locations where children and elderly and medically vulnerable

people commonly gather, including:

(i) single or multifamily residences;

(ii) schools;

(iii) places of worship;

(iv) day-care centers; and

(v) hospitals or other medical facilities.

(d) The office shall provide the recommendation described

by this section not later than the seventh day after the last day of

the public comment period applicable to the permit.

Sec. 5.294. CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATION BY COMMISSION.

In addition to other factors required by law, the commission shall

consider the recommendation of the office in making a determination

about whether to issue a permit to which Section 5.293 applies.

Sec. 5.295. STAFF; OUTSIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT. (a) The

office shall be adequately staffed to carry out its functions under

this subchapter.

(b) The office may obtain and use outside technical support

to carry out its functions under this subchapter.

SECTION 2. (a) Section 5.293, Water Code, as added by this

Act, applies only to an application for a permit, permit renewal, or

permit amendment submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental

Quality on or after the effective date of this Act. An application

for a permit, permit renewal, or permit amendment submitted to the

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality before the effective date

of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the

application was submitted, and the former law is continued in

effect for that purpose.

(b) The Office of Environmental Justice within the Texas

Commission on Environmental Quality, as created by this Act, is not

required to issue a recommendation under Section 5.293, Water Code,

as added by this Act, before January 1, 2026.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.