The commission must issue rules on boat sewage disposal and include certification and display requirements; it may delegate certification, hold hearings, and charges listed certification fees.
Sec. 26.044. DISPOSAL OF BOAT SEWAGE. (a) In this section: (1) "Boat" means any vessel or other watercraft, whether moved by oars, paddles, sails, or other power mechanism, inboard or outboard, or any other vessel or structure floating on surface water in the state, whether or not capable of self-locomotion, including but not limited to cabin cruisers, houseboats, barges, marinas, and similar floating objects. The term does not include a vessel subject to inspection under 46 U.S.C. Section 3301. (2) "Boat pump-out station" means any private or public shoreside, mobile, or floating installation either independent of or in addition to an organized waste collection, treatment, and disposal system used to receive boat sewage. (3) "Shoreside, mobile, or floating installation" means marinas and other installations servicing boats on surface water in the state. (4) "Surface water in the state" means all lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico out three nautical miles into the Gulf, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state, except waters beyond three nautical miles of any shore in the state. (b) The commission shall issue rules concerning the disposal of sewage from boats located or operated on surface water in the state. The rules of the commission shall include provisions for the establishment of standards for sewage disposal devices, the certification of sewage disposal devices, including shoreside and mobile boat pump-out stations, and the visible and conspicuous display of evidence of certification of sewage disposal devices on each boat equipped with such device and on each shoreside and mobile pump-out device. (c) The commission may delegate the administration and performance of the certification function to the executive director or to another governmental entity. The commission or delegated authority shall collect the following fees from applicants for certification: Boat Pump-out Station (biennial): Initial Certificates for Pump-out $35 Pump-out Renewal $25 Marine Sanitation Device (biennial): Boat over 26 Feet or Houseboat $15 Boat 26 Feet or less with Permanent Device $15 All certification fees shall be paid to the commission or delegated authority performing the certification function. All fees collected by any state agency shall be deposited to the credit of the water resource management account for use by the commission or delegated authority. (d) Before issuing any rules under Subsection (b), the commission or any person authorized by it under Section 26.021 on request may hold hearings on those rules in Austin and in five other locations in the state in order to provide the best opportunity for all citizens of the state to appear and present evidence to the commission. (e) Notice of the hearing in Austin shall be published at least once in one or more newspapers having general circulation in the state. Notice of each of the other hearings shall be published at least once in one or more newspapers having general circulation in the region in which each hearing is to be held. (f) Copies of each rule issued by the commission under this section shall be filed in the offices of the commission in Austin, in the office of the Secretary of State in Austin, and posted on the commission's Internet website. The commission shall provide for publication of notice of each rule issued under this section in at least one newspaper of general circulation in each county of the state and shall furnish the county judge of each county of the state a copy of the rules. Amended by Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2207, ch. 870, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977; Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 239, Sec. 79, eff. Sept. 1, 1985; Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 795, Sec. 1.089, eff. Sept. 1, 1985; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 977, Sec. 24, eff. June 19, 1987; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 333, Sec. 10, eff. Sept. 1, 1997. Amended by: Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 579 (S.B. 2445), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.