(a) Purpose. The purpose of this program is to carry out the mandate in Agriculture Code §201.026(g) relating to the abatement of agricultural and silvicultural nonpoint source pollution through a water quality management plan certification program.
(b) Definitions. For the purposes of this section the following definitions shall apply.
  (1) Animal feeding operation--A lot or facility (other than an aquatic animal production facility) where animals have been, are, or will be stabled or confined and fed or maintained for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and the animal confinement areas do not sustain crops, vegetation, forage growth, or postharvest residues in the normal growing season.
  (2) Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments--The 1990 amendments to the federal Coastal Zone Act that created the Coastal Nonpoint Program under §6217, "Protecting Coastal Waters." Under §6217, all states with approved coastal zone management programs must develop a Coastal Nonpoint Program to control polluted runoff to coastal waters.
  (3) Dry-litter poultry facility--A poultry animal feeding operation that does not use a liquid waste handling system.
  (4) Clean Water Act--Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 USC, §§1251 - 1387 (1977, as amended).
  (5) Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG)--The official Natural Resources Conservation Service guidelines, criteria, and standards for planning and applying conservation practices.
  (6) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)--An agency of the United States Department of Agriculture which includes the agency formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS).
  (7) Operating unit--Land or lands, whether contiguous or non-contiguous, owned and/or operated in a manner that contributes or has the potential to contribute agricultural or silvicultural nonpoint source pollution to water in the state. An operating unit must be determined through mutual agreement by the holder of the water quality management plan, the soil and water conservation district, and the State Board. When determining the applicability of an operating unit, the following criteria must be considered:
    (A) Contiguous lands under the same ownership and/or operational control must be considered one operating unit.
    (B) Non-contiguous lands under the same ownership and/or operational control may be considered as more than one operating unit when there is mutual agreement by the soil and water conservation district and the potential holder of the water quality management plan unless the lands are associated with an animal feeding operation.
    (C) An operating unit, when devised for an animal feeding operation, must at a minimum encompass all land or lands owned and/or operated by the holder of the water quality management plan that are used to produce feed that is consumed by the animals, as well as all land or lands owned and/or operated by the potential holder of the water quality management plan where manures or other agricultural by-products are beneficially used as a source of nutrients to produce food or fiber for any use.
    (D) Land or lands within the scope of an existing operating unit for a certified water quality management plan may not be separated from the existing operating unit to establish another operating unit unless the ownership of the lands being separated into a new operating unit has changed.
    (E) Where mutual agreement regarding an operating unit's consistency with these rules is not achieved by the potential holder of the water quality management plan, the soil and water conservation district, and the State Board, the State Board will make a final determination whether or not to certify the water quality management plan.
  (8) Practice standard--A technical specification for a conservation practice within the NRCS FOTG that contains information on why and where the practice should be applied, and sets forth the minimum quality criteria that must be met during the application of that practice in order for it to achieve its intended purpose(s).
  (9) Resource management system--A combination of conservation practices and resource management activities for the treatment of all identified resource concerns for soil, water, air, plants, animals, and humans that meets or exceeds the quality criteria in the NRCS FOTG for resource sustainability.
  (10) Soil and water conservation district (SWCD)--A governmental subdivision of this state and a public body corporate and politic, organized pursuant to Chapter 201 of the Agriculture Code.
  (11) State Board--The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board organized pursuant to Chapter 201 of the Agriculture Code.
  (12) Status Review--An assessment performed by the State Board on a water quality management plan for the purpose of determining adherence to the plan's implementation schedule and conservation plan of operations.
  (13) Texas Nonpoint Source Management Program--The comprehensive management strategy to protect and restore water impacted by nonpoint sources of pollution jointly developed and administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the State Board and approved by the Governor of the State of Texas and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
  (14) Texas surface water quality standards--The designation of water bodies for desirable uses and the narrative and numerical criteria deemed necessary to protect those uses established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
  (15) Water in the state--Groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.
  (16) Water quality management plan--A site specific plan for agricultural or silvicultural lands which includes appropriate land treatment practices, production practices, management measures, technologies or combinations thereof which when implemented will achieve a level of pollution prevention or abatement determined by the State Board in consultation with the local SWCD and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to be consistent with Texas surface water quality standards.
(c) Certification.
  (1) To be certified, a water quality management plan must at a minimum meet the resource quality criteria for water quality at the resource management system level specified within the NRCS FOTG and encompass all lands that constitute an operating unit for agricultural or silvicultural nonpoint source pollution abatement purposes. It is the decision of the State Board that the implementation of a water quality management plan based on the NRCS FOTG, including all practices required to minimally meet the resource quality criteria for water quality at the resource management system level, represents the best available technology for meeting Texas surface water quality standards.
  (2) The State Board may conditionally certify a water quality management plan for the purpose of demonstrating experimental technologies or alternative combinations of practice standards at the request of a landowner or operator. Conditional certification of a water quality management plan shall provide the landowner or operator all the benefits and limitations of certification under traditional circumstances. Conditional certification will remain applied to a water quality management plan until such time that the experimental technologies or alternative combinations of practice standards have been determined by the State Board to be equivalently effective as the traditionally applied practices for water quality criteria at the resource management system level within the NRCS FOTG. If the experimental technologies or alternative combinations of practice standards are determined to be not as effective as the traditionally applied practices for water quality criteria at the resource management system level within the NRCS FOTG, the State Board shall remove the conditional certification and the water quality management plan shall be considered not certified. Landowners or operators receiving conditional certification must enter into an agreement with the State Board allowing for intense monitoring of soil and water quality and compliance with management measures contained within the water quality management plan.
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