Sec. 33.603. COASTAL EROSION STUDIES AND PROJECTS

(a) The land office shall undertake coastal erosion studies, demonstration projects, and response projects if the land office receives legislative appropriations or other funding for that purpose. If reasonable and appropriate, the land office shall work in conjunction with other state agencies, local governments, federal agencies, including the United States Army Corps of Engineers, or other qualified project partners in undertaking those studies and projects.

(b) The studies and projects shall address:

(1) assessment of the feasibility, cost, and financing of different methods of avoiding, slowing, or remedying coastal erosion;

(2) beneficial placement of dredged material where appropriate to replenish eroded public beach, bay shore, marsh, and dune areas;

(3) public beach, bay shore, and marsh nourishment or restoration projects using sediments other than material from navigational or other dredging projects;

(4) guidelines on grain size and toxicity level;

(5) the economic, natural resource, and other benefits of coastal erosion projects;

(6) the protection, revegetation, and restoration of dunes;

(7) the planting of vegetation as a means of inhibiting bay shore erosion and projects developing and cultivating disease-resistant vegetation adapted to local conditions;

(8) the construction or retrofitting of dams, jetties, groins, and other impoundment structures, provided that the structures include sediment bypassing systems;

(9) estimating the quantity and quality of sediment trapped by reservoirs, navigation channels, and placement areas and identification of other sediment sources;

(10) the use of hard or soft structures on bay shorelines as a method of avoiding, slowing, or remedying erosion;

(11) storm damage mitigation, post-storm damage assessment, and debris removal;

(12) removal and relocation of structures from public beaches, including the purchase of property located on a public beach;

(13) the acquisition of property necessary for the construction, reconstruction, maintenance, widening, or extension of an erosion response project under this subchapter;

(14) structural shoreline protection projects that use innovative technologies designed or engineered to minimize beach scour; and

(15) other studies or projects the commissioner considers necessary or appropriate to implement this subchapter.

(c) An agreement between the commissioner and a qualified project partner to undertake a coastal erosion response study or project:

(1) must require the qualified project partner to pay a specified percentage of the shared project cost that is not less than the minimum amount prescribed by Subsection (e):

(A) before completion of the project; or

(B) following completion of the project, in accordance with a schedule provided by the agreement; and

(2) may contain other terms governing the study or project.

(d) Except as provided by Subsections (b)(8) and (14), this chapter does not authorize the construction or funding of a hard structure on or landward of a public beach.

(e) A qualified project partner must pay:

(1) not less than 25 percent of the shared project cost if the project is a beach nourishment project on a public beach or bay shore; and

(2) not less than 40 percent of the shared project cost if the project is any other coastal erosion response study or project, including:

(A) a marsh restoration project; or

(B) a bay shoreline protection project other than a beach nourishment project.

(f) Notwithstanding Subsections (c) and (e), each biennium the commissioner may undertake at least one erosion response project without requiring a qualified project partner to pay a portion of the shared project cost if the total cost of the projects that do not have a cost share requirement does not exceed one-half of the total amount appropriated to the land office for coastal erosion planning and response.

(g) Notwithstanding Subsection (d), each biennium the commissioner may undertake or provide funding for one or more erosion response demonstration projects if the state's portion of the shared project cost does not exceed one-tenth of the total amount appropriated to the land office for coastal erosion planning and response.

(h) Notwithstanding Subsection (e), the commissioner may determine the percentage of the shared project cost a qualified project partner must pay for a project undertaken pursuant to Subsection (b)(11), (12), or (13).

Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 295, Sec. 3, eff. June 7, 1991. Renumbered from Sec. 33.602 and amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 508, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1404, Sec. 1, eff. June 16, 2001; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 874, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003. Amended by: Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 304 , Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2005. Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1302 , Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.