The department must develop and adopt a state aquatic vegetation management plan, and the plan has to meet specified coordination, notice, and herbicide-safety requirements.
Sec. 11.082. STATE AQUATIC VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PLAN. (a) The department shall develop and by rule adopt a state aquatic vegetation management plan following the generally accepted principles of integrated pest management. The state plan shall apply throughout the state unless a governmental entity has adopted an approved local plan. (b) The department shall develop the state plan in coordination with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Department of Agriculture, water districts and other political subdivisions of the state with jurisdiction over public bodies of surface water, and public drinking water providers. (c) The state plan must: (1) establish minimum standards for a governing entity that regulates a public body of surface water; (2) require that any application of aquatic herbicide complies with label rates approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency; (3) ensure that any public drinking water provider that has an intake within two river miles of a site at which an application of aquatic herbicide is proposed to occur receives notice of the proposed application not later than the 14th day before the date the application is to occur; (4) provide for the coordination, oversight, public notification, and enforcement of all aquatic herbicide use to protect state fish and wildlife resources and habitat and to prevent unreasonable risk from the use of any aquatic herbicide; and (5) require that the written notice of a proposed application of herbicide include information demonstrating that the proposed application of herbicide under a plan will not result in exceeding: (A) the maximum contaminant level of the herbicide in finished drinking water as set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Agency; or (B) the maximum label rate, if the aquatic herbicide does not have a maximum contaminant level established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. (d) In administering the state plan, the department shall consult with, advise, provide resources to, and otherwise assist local governments regarding aquatic vegetation management and control. In this subsection, "local government" includes any political subdivision with jurisdiction over a public body of surface water. Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1461, Sec. 1. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 968, Sec. 24, eff. Sept. 1, 2001. Amended by: Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 986 (S.B. 766), Sec. 51, eff. September 1, 2025.