Sec. 17.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Board" means the Texas Water Development Board.

(2) "Commission" means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.

(3) "Executive administrator" means the executive administrator of the Texas Water Development Board.

(4) "Executive director" means the executive director of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.

(5) "Development fund manager" means the development fund manager of the Texas Water Development Board.

(6) "Political subdivision" means a state agency, a county, city, or other body politic or corporate of the state, including any district or authority created under Article III, Section 52 or Article XVI, Section 59 of the Texas Constitution and including any interstate compact commission to which the state is a party and any nonprofit water supply corporation created and operating under Chapter 76, Acts of the 43rd Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1933 (Article 1434a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).

(7) "Water supply project" means:

(A) any engineering undertaking or work to conserve and develop water resources of the state, including the control, storage, and preservation of its storm water and floodwater and the water of its rivers and streams for all useful and lawful purposes by the acquisition, improvement, extension, or construction of dams, reservoirs, brush control, precipitation enhancement, desalinization, and other water storage and conservation projects, which may include flood storage, including underground storage projects, filtration and water treatment plants, including any system necessary to transport water from storage to points of distribution or from storage to filtration and treatment plants, including facilities for transporting water therefrom to wholesale purchasers or to retail purchasers as authorized by Section 17.072(c) of this code, by the acquisition, by purchase of rights in water, by the drilling of wells, or for any one or more of these purposes or methods;

(B) any engineering undertaking or work outside the state to provide for the maintenance and enhancement of the quality of water by eliminating saline inflow through well pumping and deep well injection of brine if such undertaking or work results in water being available for use in or for the benefit of Texas;

(C) any undertaking or work by Texas political subdivisions to conserve, convey, or develop water resources in areas outside Texas if such undertaking or work results in water being available for use in or for the benefit of Texas; or

(D) a channel storage reservoir located on an international boundary between Texas and Mexico that develops the water resources of Texas and the research, planning, and actions necessary to obtain regulatory authority at the local, state, and federal level.

(8) "Construction" means any one or more of the following:

(A) preliminary planning to determine the feasibility of a water supply project, treatment works, or flood control measures;

(B) engineering, architectural, legal, title, fiscal, or economic investigations or studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures, or other necessary actions;

(C) the expense of any condemnation or other legal proceeding;

(D) erecting, building, acquiring, altering, remodeling, improving, or extending a water supply project, treatment works, or flood control measures; or

(E) the inspection or supervision of any of the items listed in this subdivision.

(9) "Treatment works" means any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of waste to implement this chapter or necessary to recycle or reuse water at the most economical cost over the estimated life of the works, including:

(A) intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, pumping, power, and other equipment and their appurtenances;

(B) extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions, and alterations of items listed in Paragraph (A) of this subdivision;

(C) elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities;

(D) any works, including sites for works and acquisition of the land that will be a part of or used in connection with the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from treatment;

(E) any plant, disposal field, lagoon, canal, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfills, or other facilities installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, or stabilizing waste; or

(F) facilities to provide for the collection, control, and disposal of waste heat.

(10) "Water quality enhancement" means the construction of treatment works by political subdivisions with loans provided by water quality enhancement funds.

(11) "Water quality enhancement funds" means the proceeds from the sale of Texas Water Development Bonds issued under the authority of Article III, Section 49-d-1, of the Texas Constitution, and proceeds from the sale of bonds dedicated to water quality enhancement purposes under Article III, Sections 49-d-2, 49-d-6, and 49-d-7, of the Texas Constitution.

(12) "Flood control funds" means the proceeds from the sale of Texas Water Development Bonds issued under the authority of Article III, Sections 49-d-2, 49-d-6, and 49-d-7, of the Texas Constitution and reserved for flood control purposes.

(13) "Floodplain management plan" means a comprehensive plan for flood control within a watershed, based on analysis of alternative nonstructural and structural means of reducing flood hazards, including assessments of costs, benefits, and environmental effects and may include preliminary design of structural flood control projects.

(14) "Nonstructural flood control" includes measures such as:

(A) acquisition of floodplain land for use as public open space;

(B) acquisition and removal of buildings located in a floodplain; or

(C) relocation of residents of buildings removed from a floodplain.

(15) "Structural flood control" includes measures such as construction of storm water retention basins, enlargement of stream channels, beach nourishment, and modification or reconstruction of bridges.

(16) "Floodplain" means land subject to inundation by the 100-year-frequency flood.

(17) "Financial assistance" means any loan of funds from the water supply account, the water quality enhancement account, or the flood control account to a political subdivision for construction of a water supply project, including projects referenced in the state water plan, treatment works, or flood control measures through the purchase of bonds or other obligations of the political subdivision, and any loan of funds the source of which is the proceeds from water financial assistance bonds.

(18) "Bonds" means Texas Water Development Bonds authorized by the Texas Constitution.

(19) "Waste" has the same meaning as provided in Section 26.001 of this code.

(20) "Water development bonds" means the Texas Water Development Bonds authorized by Article III, Sections 49-c and 49-d, of the Texas Constitution and bonds dedicated to use for the purposes of those sections and for flood control purposes under Article III, Sections 49-d-2, 49-d-6, and 49-d-7, of the Texas Constitution.

(21) "Water quality enhancement bonds" means the Texas Water Development Bonds authorized by Article III, Section 49-d-1, of the Texas Constitution and bonds dedicated to use for the purposes of that section by Article III, Sections 49-d-2, 49-d-6, and 49-d-7, of the Texas Constitution.

(22) "Lending rate" means the rate of interest established by the board as the lending rate.

(23) "Conservation" means:

(A) the development of water resources; and

(B) those practices, techniques, and technologies that will reduce the consumption of water, reduce the loss or waste of water, improve the efficiency in the use of water, or increase the recycling and reuse of water so that a water supply is made available for future or alternative uses.

(24) "Regional facility" means a water supply, wastewater collection and treatment, flood control, or other system which incorporates multiple service areas or drainage areas into an areawide service facility thereby reducing the number of required facilities, or any system which serves an area that is other than a single county, city, special district, or other political subdivision of the state the specified size of which is determined by:

(A) population;

(B) number of governmental entities served;

(C) service capacity; or

(D) any combination of the factors listed in Paragraphs (A) through (C) of this subdivision.

Regional wastewater treatment facilities may also include those identified in the approved state water quality management plan and the annual updates to that plan.

(25) "Water financial assistance bonds" means the Texas Water Development Bonds authorized to be issued by Section 49-d-8, Article III, Texas Constitution, and dedicated to use for the purposes described in that section.

Amended by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 1103, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 7, Sec. 1, 3(2), (3), eff. March 24, 1987; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 167, Sec. 5.01(a)(57) eff. Sept. 1, 1987; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., 2nd C.S., ch. 66, Sec. 2; Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1062, Sec. 2; Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 295, Sec. 42, eff. June 7, 1991; Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 3, Sec. 1.065, eff. Aug. 12, 1991; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1010, Sec. 5.04, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1010, Sec. 5.05.