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 · Senate bill

SB1145

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Official caption: Relating to the authority of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to issue permits for the land application of water produced from certain mining and oil and gas extraction operations.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Birdwell, Sparks. 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.

SB1145 gives the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) authority to issue permits for applying produced water to land when that water comes from specified activities and has been treated for beneficial use.
The covered sources are the activities identified in Water Code 26.131(a), including specified oil, gas and geothermal operations, certain uranium-exploration activities and other operations regulated under Natural Resources Code 91.101.
Signed May 13, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025.

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What does it do?

SB1145 gives the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) authority to issue permits for applying produced water to land when that water comes from specified activities and has been treated for beneficial use. It also requires TCEQ to adopt land-application standards, including standards that prevent pollution of surface water and groundwater. The law authorizes a permitting program; it does not automatically approve a particular project or declare untreated produced water safe to spread on land. Final law, sections 1–2.

The covered sources are the activities identified in Water Code 26.131(a), including specified oil, gas and geothermal operations, certain uranium-exploration activities and other operations regulated under Natural Resources Code 91.101. It is not a blanket transfer of all mining or oil-and-gas regulation to TCEQ. The act creates an exception to the Railroad Commission’s existing waste-discharge permitting authority for this treated-water land application. Final law; Prior Water Code 26.131; Referenced Railroad Commission authority.

Signed May 13, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025. The change applies only to permits whose applications are filed on or after that date. Earlier-filed applications remain under the prior law, even if the permit decision comes later. Official history; Final law, sections 3–4.

What changed along the way?

The introduced, Senate committee, engrossed, House committee and enrolled operative provisions match. The Senate reported the bill without amendments; the official amendment index lists no floor amendments. There is no failed floor proposal or substantive substitute change to attribute to this act. All text versions; Introduced text; Amendment index; Final law.

The act makes parallel changes to both versions of Water Code 26.131: the version effective before, and the version effective upon, federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act authority being delegated to the Railroad Commission. The land-application provision is numbered (e) in one version and (d) in the other, but its substance is the same. This drafting does not itself make that federal delegation or replace the separate existing provision addressing discharges into water under delegated federal discharge-permit authority. Final law; Prior Water Code 26.131; Other prior statutory version.

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?

Operators seeking beneficial use of treated produced water gain a TCEQ permitting route, while landowners and water users have an express statutory requirement for pollution-prevention standards. Actual approval, treatment requirements and environmental results depend on implementation and the project; the act does not specify pollutant limits, guarantee water savings or certify any site as safe. Final law.

The fiscal note estimates 13 additional full-time-equivalent state positions and dedicated-account costs of $1,357,118 in fiscal 2026 and $1,197,818 in fiscal 2027, calculated from its two cost columns. It forecasts dedicated-account revenue of $464,000 and $489,000 in those years, respectively. Its headline $0 net impact to general-revenue-related funds is therefore not a claim that the program has no costs. The act itself makes no appropriation. March 5 fiscal note.

The estimates assume a new TCEQ program involving technical assistance, investigations, complaints, public participation, laboratory accreditation and enforcement support. They assume no land-application permit applications in fiscal 2026, ten in 2027 and thirty per year in 2028–2030; these are forecasting assumptions, not legal caps or promises about actual demand. The note anticipates no significant local-government fiscal impact and no additional Railroad Commission costs or savings. It does not quantify private treatment expenses or environmental benefits. March 5 fiscal note.

Official sources

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