Sec. 16.060. DESALINATION STUDIES AND RESEARCH

(a) The board shall undertake or participate in research, feasibility and facility planning studies, investigations, and surveys as it considers necessary to further the development of cost-effective water supplies from seawater desalination in the state.

(b) The board shall prepare a biennial progress report on the implementation of seawater desalination activities in the state and shall submit it to the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house of representatives not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year. The report shall include:

(1) results of the board's studies and activities relative to seawater desalination during the preceding biennium;

(2) identification and evaluation of research, regulatory, technical, and financial impediments to the implementation of seawater desalination projects;

(3) evaluation of the role the state should play in furthering the development of large-scale seawater desalination projects in the state; and

(4) the anticipated appropriation from general revenues necessary to continue investigating water desalination activities in the state during the next biennium.

(c) The board shall actively pursue federal sources of funding for desalination projects in the state.

Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 49, Sec. 2, eff. May 15, 2003.