31 Tex. Admin. Code § 357.42 - Drought Response Information, Activities, and Recommendations
(a) RWPs shall consolidate and present
information on current and planned preparations for, and responses to, drought
conditions in the region including, but not limited to, Drought of Record
conditions based on the following subsections.
(b) RWPGs shall conduct an assessment of
current preparations for drought within the RWPA. This may include information
from local Drought Contingency Plans. The assessment shall include:
(1) A description of how water suppliers in
the RWPA identify and respond to the onset of drought; and
(2) Identification of unnecessary or
counterproductive variations in drought response strategies among water
suppliers that may confuse the public or impede drought response efforts. At a
minimum, RWPGs shall review and summarize drought response efforts for
neighboring communities including the differences in the implementation of
outdoor watering restrictions.
(c) RWPGs shall identify drought response
triggers and actions regarding the management of existing groundwater and
surface water sources in the RWPA designated in accordance with §
357.32 of this title (relating to
Water Supply Analysis), including:
(1)
Factors specific to each source of water supply to be considered in determining
whether to initiate a drought response for each water source including specific
recommended drought response triggers;
(2) Actions to be taken as part of the
drought response by the manager of each water source and the entities relying
on each source, including the number of drought stages; and
(3) Triggers and actions developed in
paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection may consider existing triggers and
actions associated with existing Drought Contingency Plans.
(d) RWPGs shall collect
information on existing major water infrastructure facilities that may be used
for interconnections in event of an emergency shortage of water. At a minimum,
the RWP shall include a general description of the methodology used to collect
the information, the number of existing and potential emergency interconnects
in the RWPA, and a list of which entities are connected to each other. In
accordance with Texas Water Code §
16.053(r),
certain information regarding water infrastructure facilities is excepted from
the Public Information Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 552. Any excepted
information collected shall be submitted separately to the EA in accordance
with guidance to be provided by EA.
(e) RWPGs may provide general descriptions of
local Drought Contingency Plans that involve making emergency connections
between water systems or WWP systems that do not include locations or
descriptions of facilities that are disallowed under subsection (d) of this
section.
(f) RWPGs may designate
recommended and alternative Drought Management Water Management Strategies and
other recommended drought measures in the RWP including:
(1) List and description of the recommended
Drought Management Water Management Strategies and associated WUGs and WWPs, if
any, that are recommended by the RWPG. Information to include associated
triggers to initiate each of the recommended Drought Management WMSs;
(2) List and description of alternative
Drought Management WMSs and associated WUGs and WWPs, if any, that are included
in the plan. Information to include associated triggers to initiate each of the
alternative Drought Management WMSs;
(3) List of all potentially feasible Drought
Management WMSs that were considered or evaluated by the RWPG but not
recommended; and
(4) List and
summary of any other recommended Drought Management Measures, if any, that are
included in the RWP, including associated triggers if applicable.
(g) The RWPGs shall evaluate
potential emergency responses to local drought conditions or loss of existing
water supplies; the evaluation shall include identification of potential
alternative water sources that may be considered for temporary emergency use by
WUGs and WWPs in the event that the Existing Water Supply sources become
temporarily unavailable to the WUGs and WWPs due to unforeseeable hydrologic
conditions such as emergency water right curtailment, unanticipated loss of
reservoir conservation storage, or other localized drought impacts. RWPGs shall
evaluate, at a minimum, municipal WUGs that:
(1) have existing populations less than
7,500;
(2) rely on a sole source
for its water supply regardless of whether the water is provided by a WWP;
and
(3) all County-Other
WUGs.
(h) RWPGs shall
consider any relevant recommendations from the Drought Preparedness
Council.
(i) RWPGs may make drought
preparation and response recommendations regarding:
(1) Development of, content contained within,
and implementation of local Drought Contingency Plans required by the
Commission;
(2) Current drought
management preparations in the RWPA including:
(A) drought response triggers; and
(B) responses to drought
conditions;
(3) The
Drought Preparedness Council and the State Drought Preparedness Plan;
and
(4) Any other general
recommendations regarding drought management in the region or state.
(j) The RWPGs shall develop
region-specific model Drought Contingency Plans.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.