HomeMy WebLinkAbout025297 RES - 05/13/2003RESOLUTION
REQUESTING THE TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL
QUALITY TO UPHOLD ITS HISTORIC PRACTICES ON THE RETURN
OF WATER TO A WATERCOURSE OR STREAM
WHEREAS, Section 297.49(a) of Title 30, Texas Administrative Code provides that a
right to take and use water is limited to the extent and purposes authorized in the water
right; and
WHEREAS, Section 297.49(a) only allows for the use or reuse of state water
appropriated under a water right prior to its release into a watercourse or stream; and
WHEREAS, Section 297.49(a) provides that once water has been diverted under a
water right and then returned to a watercourse or stream, it is considered surplus water,
and subject to maintaining instream uses, beneficial inflows to bays and estuaries, or
appropriation by others; and
WHEREAS, Section 297.49(b) provides that a person who takes or diverts water from
a watercourse or stream must conduct surplus water back to the watercourse or stream
from which it was taken if the water can be returned by gravity flow and it is reasonably
practicable to do so; and
WHEREAS, Section 297.49 also allows the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality to specify a specific amount or percentage of water diverted that must be
returned to protect senior downstream water rights or to provide flows for instream uses
and bays and estuaries; and
WHEREAS, Section 297.49(c) requires that return waters meet the Texas Surface
Water Quality Standards prior to their discharge into water in the state; and
Rule 405.6, Rules and Regulations, Texas Water Rights Commission, 1973. The
proposition of rule 405.6 remains with us today in the current rules at §297.49. There,
provision is made to "conduct the surplus water back to the watercourse in accordance
with water quality standards. See 30 T.A.C. §297.49.
WHEREAS, Section 297.16(a) apparently limits the use of bed and bank permits for the
transportation of "treated wastewater derived from privately owned groundwater;" and
WHEREAS, the Commission's rules does not have a rule that authorizes a a bed and
banks permit for transporting wastewater effluent derived from surface water.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The City respectfully requests that the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality follow it historical precedence that when a use has been
completed in an appropriation, the water be returned to the river or stream.
R33720A2.doc
SECTION 2. The City Manager is directed to take appropriate action to protect the
City's water rights, including responding to any application for a bed and banks permit
that would allow the conveyance treated water from one point on the Nueces, Atascosa,
Frio, Lavaca, Navidad, or Colorado Rivers to another for consumptive use.
City Secretary
APPROVED: 9th day of May, 2003.
THE CITY OF CORPUseS .CHRISTI,,--~
R33720A2.doc
Corpus Christi, Texas
The above resolution was passed by the following vote:
Samuel L. Neal, Jr. ~
Brent Chesney
Javier D. Colmenero
Melody Cooper
Henry Garrett
Bill Kelly
Rex A. Kinnison
Jesse Noyola
Mark Scott