Sec. 552.044.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:
(1)(A)  "Benefitted property" means an improved lot or tract to which drainage service is made available under this subchapter.
(B)  "Benefitted property," in a municipality with a population of more than 1.18 million located primarily in a county with a population of 2.5 million or more which is operating a drainage utility system under this chapter, means a lot or tract, but does not include land appraised for agricultural use, to which drainage service is made available under this subchapter and which discharges into a creek, river, slough, culvert, or other channel that is part of the municipality's drainage utility system.  Sections 552.053(c)(2) and (c)(3) do not apply to a municipality described in this subdivision.
(2)  "Cost of service" as applied to a drainage system service to any benefitted property means:
(A)  the prorated cost of the acquisition, whether by eminent domain or otherwise, of land, rights-of-way, options to purchase land, easements, and interests in land relating to structures, equipment, and facilities used in draining the benefitted property;
(B)  the prorated cost of the acquisition, construction, repair, and maintenance of structures, equipment, and facilities used in draining the benefitted property;
(C)  the prorated cost of architectural, engineering, legal, and related services, plans and specifications, studies, surveys, estimates of cost and of revenue, and all other expenses necessary or incident to planning, providing, or determining the feasibility and practicability of structures, equipment, and facilities used in draining the benefitted property;
(D)  the prorated cost of all machinery, equipment, furniture, and facilities necessary or incident to the provision and operation of draining the benefitted property;
(E)  the prorated cost of funding and financing charges and interest arising from construction projects and the start-up cost of a drainage facility used in draining the benefitted property;
(F)  the prorated cost of debt service and reserve requirements of structures, equipment, and facilities provided by revenue bonds or other drainage revenue-pledge securities or obligations issued by the municipality;  and
(G)  the administrative costs of a drainage utility system.
(3)  "Drainage" means bridges, catch basins, channels, conduits, creeks, culverts, detention ponds, ditches, draws, flumes, pipes, pumps, sloughs, treatment works, and appurtenances to those items, whether natural or artificial, or using force or gravity, that are used to draw off surface water from land, carry the water away, collect, store, or treat the water, or divert the water into natural or artificial watercourses.
(4)  "Drainage charge" means:
(A)  the levy imposed to recover the cost of the service of the municipality in furnishing drainage for any benefitted property;  and
(B)  if specifically provided by the governing body of the municipality by ordinance, an amount made in contribution to funding of future drainage system construction by the municipality.
(5)  "Drainage system" means the drainage owned or controlled in whole or in part by the municipality and dedicated to the service of benefitted property, including provisions for additions to the system.
(6)  "Facilities" means the property, either real, personal, or mixed, that is used in providing drainage and included in the system.
(7)  "Public utility" means a drainage service that is regularly provided by the municipality through municipal property dedicated to that service to the users of benefitted property within the service area and that is based on:
(A)  an established schedule of charges;
(B)  the use of the police power to implement the service;  and
(C)  nondiscriminatory, reasonable, and equitable terms as declared under this subchapter.
(8)  "Service area" means the municipal boundaries and any other land areas outside the municipal boundaries which, as a result of topography or hydraulics, contribute overland flow into the watersheds served by the drainage system of a municipality;  provided, however, that in no event may a service area extend farther than the boundaries of a municipality's current extraterritorial jurisdiction, nor, except as provided by Section 552.0451, may a service area of one municipality extend into the boundaries of another municipality.  The service area is to be established in the ordinance establishing the drainage utility.  Provided, that no municipality shall extend a service area outside of its municipal boundaries except:
(A)  a municipality of more than 500,000 population located within 50 miles of an international border;
(B)  a municipality all or part of which is located over or within the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone or the Edwards Aquifer transition zone, as designated by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission; or
(C)  as provided by Section 552.0451.
(9)  "User" means the person or entity who owns or occupies a benefitted property.
(10)  "Improved lot or tract" means a lot or tract that has a structure or other improvement on it that causes an impervious coverage of the soil under the structure or improvement.
(11)  "Wholly sufficient and privately owned drainage system" means land owned and operated by a person other than a municipal drainage utility system the drainage of which does not discharge into a creek, river, slough, culvert, or other channel that is part of a municipal drainage utility system.
Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987.  Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1230, Sec. 1(d), eff. Aug. 28, 1989;  Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 852, Sec. 1, eff. June 16, 1991;  Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 674, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1993;  Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 773, Sec. 1, eff. June 18, 1993;  Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 35, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995;  Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 11.258, eff. Sept. 1, 1995;  Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 633, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997;  Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 62, Sec. 13.22, eff. Sept. 1, 1999;  Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 669, Sec. 108, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
Amended by: 
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 520 (S.B. 688), Sec. 1, eff. June 16, 2007.
Renumbered from Local Government Code, Section 402.044 by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 885 (H.B. 2278), Sec. 3.76(a)(2), eff. April 1, 2009.
Amended by: 
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 885 (H.B. 2278), Sec. 3.77(5), eff. April 1, 2009.
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1163 (H.B. 2702), Sec. 101, eff. September 1, 2011.
Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 644 (H.B. 4559), Sec. 198, eff. September 1, 2023.