HB 247 would clear up an inconsistency that exists between the Texas Water Code and the constitutional amendment that encourages wildlife habitat management through ad valorem tax incentives.

Currently, wildlife managers who use ponds of 200- acre feet or less to provide water for wildlife or recreational opportunities for clients are subject to $5,000/day/impoundment fine if these stock tanks aren¹t permitted by the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission. This adversely affects habitat enhancement, and thus wildlife.

HB 247, by Rep. Bob Turner and sponsored by Sen. Jeff Wentworth in the Senate, corrects this by exempting these ponds and such activities from the permitting requirement.

After reviewing the House version, the Senate crafted its own version. It must now be adopted, as written, by the House in order to complete the legislative process before the session ends, and time is running out. Two of our friends in the House, Rep. Robbie Cook, Vice Chairman of the State Recreational Resources Committee and Rep. Gary Walker, Chairman of the Land and Resource Management Committee, need to be persuaded that this bill is good for Texas and good for wildlife. Their reluctance stems from the (wrong) idea that this bill is allowing a "consumptive water use" to escape permitting, when it¹s not. How much water is used when someone catches a bass from a tank, shoots a duck over a man-made marsh or goes swimming in the pond? The bill just legitimizes non-consumptive recreational activities that are taking place on or near the water.

Please contact Rep. Robbie Cook of Eagle Lake (phone: 512/ 463-0682; FAX 512/463-9955) and Rep. Gary Walker of Plains (phone: 512/463-0678; FAX 512/463-1966) and ask them to allow the Senate version of the bill to stand.