Sec. 26.553. REGULATION OF QUARRIES WITHIN WATER QUALITY PROTECTION AREA. (a) The commission shall require a responsible party to obtain an individual permit for any discharges from a quarry located in a water quality protection area that is located:

(1) within a 100-year floodplain of any water body; or

(2) within one mile of any water body.

(b) The commission shall require a responsible party to obtain a general permit under Section 26.040 for any quarry that is located in a water quality protection area and located a distance of more than one mile from any water body.

(c) Subject to Subsection (d), the commission shall prohibit the construction or operation of any new quarry, or the expansion of an existing quarry, located within 1,500 feet of a water body located in a water quality protection area for which a person files an application for a permit or permit amendment after September 1, 2005.

(d) Notwithstanding Subsection (c), the commission may issue or amend a permit to authorize the construction or operation of a quarry located between 200 and 1,500 feet of a water body on finding that:

(1) the responsible party can satisfy performance criteria established by commission rule and incorporated into the permit to address:

(A) slope gradients that minimize the potential for erosion, slides, sloughing of quarry walls, overburden piles, and banks into the water body and related water quality considerations;

(B) whether operations could result in significant damage to important historic and cultural values and ecological systems;

(C) whether operations could affect renewable resource lands, including aquifers and aquifer recharge areas, in which the operations could result in a substantial loss or reduction of long-range productivity of a water supply or of food or fiber products; and

(D) whether operations could affect natural hazard land, including areas subject to frequent flooding and areas of unstable geology, in which the operations could substantially endanger life and property;

(2) the responsible party has provided a plan for the control of surface water drainage and water accumulation to prevent:

(A) erosion, siltation, or runoff; and

(B) damage to:

(i) fish, wildlife, or fish or wildlife habitat; or

(ii) public or private property;

(3) the responsible party has provided a plan for reclamation of the quarry that is consistent with best management standards and practices adopted by the commission for quarry reclamation, which may include backfilling, soil stabilization and compacting, grading, erosion control measures, and appropriate revegetation; and

(4) the responsible party has provided evidence that, to the extent possible, quarrying will be conducted using the best available technology to:

(A) minimize disturbance and adverse effects of the quarry operation on fish, wildlife, and related environmental resources; and

(B) enhance fish, wildlife, and related environmental resources where practicable.

(e) The commission by rule shall establish effluent or other water quality requirements, including requirements for financial responsibility, adequate to protect the water resources in a water quality protection area for inclusion in any authorization, including an individual or general permit, issued under this section by the commission.

(f) In addition to any other requirements established by commission rule adopted under Subsection (e), the responsible party for a quarry located in a water quality protection area required to obtain an individual or general permit shall include with an application filed with the commission under this section:

(1) a proposed plan of action for how the responsible party will restore the receiving water body to background conditions in the event of an unauthorized discharge that affects the water body; and

(2) evidence of sufficiently funded bonding or proof of financial resources to mitigate, remediate, and correct any potential future effects on a water body of an unauthorized discharge to a water body.

Added by Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 374 (S.B. 1354), Sec. 2, eff. June 17, 2005.