2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB3619

When the Railroad Commission plugs or replugs a well under Natural Resources Code 89.043, HB3619 requires it to restore the land's contours to the topography that existed before that work began, in a manner intended to promote na…

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Official caption: Relating to the rights and liabilities of the owner of the surface estate of the tract of land on which a well to be plugged or replugged by the Railroad Commission of Texas is located.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Dean. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

When the Railroad Commission plugs or replugs a well under Natural Resources Code 89.043, HB3619 requires it to restore the land's contours to the topography that existed before that work began, in a manner intended to promote natural revegetation and consistent with commission rules.
A person authorized under Section 89.044 to enter the land may not prevent the surface owner from accessing it, except when necessary to prevent injury to public health.
The surface owner receives immunity from civil liability for damages resulting from acts or omissions by the commission, its employees or agents, or other people authorized under the chapter to enter the property in carrying out the chapter.
The act took effect September 1, 2025.

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What does it do?

When the Railroad Commission plugs or replugs a well under Natural Resources Code 89.043, HB3619 requires it to restore the land’s contours to the topography that existed before that work began, in a manner intended to promote natural revegetation and consistent with commission rules. The surface owner may decline restoration. This is not a promise to recreate every prior tree or plant, and the baseline is before the plugging work—not before the well was originally drilled. Final law.

A person authorized under Section 89.044 to enter the land may not prevent the surface owner from accessing it, except when necessary to prevent injury to public health. The existing entry authority includes identified commission personnel or agents, operators and nonoperators for plugging work, and an authorized prospective operator for a surface inspection. The new access protection does not eliminate the commission’s existing entry authority. Entry law.

The surface owner receives immunity from civil liability for damages resulting from acts or omissions by the commission, its employees or agents, or other people authorized under the chapter to enter the property in carrying out the chapter. This is protection against liability for those activities, not an unlimited exemption for everything an owner might independently do. The pre-existing good-faith protection for the commission, operators and nonoperators remains in place.

The act took effect September 1, 2025. Its specific restoration requirement applies only to wells plugged or replugged on or after that date. It does not promise that the commission will plug every well or create a new compensation payment to landowners. History; commission plugging authority.

What changed along the way?

The introduced, House committee and House-passed versions required restoration to the land’s previous “condition.” The Senate committee substitute narrowed that to contouring intended to promote natural revegetation, expressly allowed the owner to decline restoration, and changed the owner’s protection from “not liable” to “immune from civil liability.” The owner’s access protection remained. Introduced; House-passed; Senate substitute.

The amendment index lists no individual floor amendments, but that does not mean the Senate made no change: the Senate adopted the substitute, and the House concurred on May 30. The enrolled law matches that Senate language. There was no conference committee. Senate amendment packet; amendment index.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Surface owners gain a defined restoration duty, a choice to decline it, protection of access and a civil-liability shield for covered work by others. The commission and its contractors must account for contours and access while addressing unsafe wells. A person seeking damages must also account for the immunity provisions; the bill does not create a guaranteed damages remedy.

The final fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact, assuming costs can be absorbed within existing resources. Earlier notes for the broader House wording said costs could not be determined and illustrated possible annual increases up to $14.01 million, using historical plugging volumes and revegetation assumptions. That was not a forecast for the narrower final law or an appropriation. Final fiscal note; earlier House-version fiscal note.

Review boundary: This concerns the stated commission plugging and authorized-entry framework. It does not settle private lease obligations, current project eligibility, or a particular damage claim.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.