DEFINITIONS.

In this chapter:

(1) "Affected person" means any landowner within an area for which a certificate of public convenience and necessity is filed, any retail public utility affected by any action of the regulatory authority, any person or corporation whose utility service or rates are affected by any proceeding before the regulatory authority, or any person or corporation that is a competitor of a retail public utility with respect to any service performed by the retail public utility or that desires to enter into competition.

(1-a) "Landowner," "owner of a tract of land," and "owners of each tract of land" include multiple owners of a single deeded tract of land as shown on the appraisal roll of the appraisal district established for each county in which the property is located.

(2) "Affiliated interest" or "affiliate" means:

(A) any person or corporation owning or holding directly or indirectly five percent or more of the voting securities of a utility;

(B) any person or corporation in any chain of successive ownership of five percent or more of the voting securities of a utility;

(C) any corporation five percent or more of the voting securities of which is owned or controlled directly or indirectly by a utility;

(D) any corporation five percent or more of the voting securities of which is owned or controlled directly or indirectly by any person or corporation that owns or controls directly or indirectly five percent or more of the voting securities of any utility or by any person or corporation in any chain of successive ownership of five percent of those utility securities;

(E) any person who is an officer or director of a utility or of any corporation in any chain of successive ownership of five percent or more of voting securities of a public utility;

(F) any person or corporation that the utility commission, after notice and hearing, determines actually exercises any substantial influence or control over the policies and actions of a utility or over which a utility exercises such control or that is under common control with a utility, such control being the possession directly or indirectly of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of another, whether that power is established through ownership or voting of securities or by any other direct or indirect means; or

(G) any person or corporation that the utility commission, after notice and hearing, determines is exercising substantial influence over the policies and actions of the utility in conjunction with one or more persons or corporations with which they are related by ownership or blood relationship, or by action in concert, that together they are affiliated within the meaning of this section, even though no one of them alone is so affiliated.

(3) "Allocations" means, for all retail public utilities, the division of plant, revenues, expenses, taxes and reserves between municipalities or between municipalities and unincorporated areas, where those items are used for providing water or sewer utility service in a municipality or for a municipality and unincorporated areas.

(4) "Board" means the Texas Water Development Board.

(4-a) "Class A utility" means a public utility that provides retail water or sewer utility service through 10,000 or more taps or connections.

(4-b) "Class B utility" means a public utility that provides retail water or sewer utility service through 2,300 or more taps or connections but fewer than 10,000 taps or connections.

(4-c) "Class C utility" means a public utility that provides retail water or sewer utility service through 500 or more taps or connections but fewer than 2,300 taps or connections.

(4-d) "Class D utility" means a public utility that provides retail water or sewer utility service through fewer than 500 taps or connections.

(5) "Commission" means the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

(6) "Commissioner" means a member of the commission.

(7) "Corporation" means any corporation, joint-stock company, or association, domestic or foreign, and its lessees, assignees, trustees, receivers, or other successors in interest, having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships but does not include municipal corporations unless expressly provided in this chapter.

(8) "Executive director" means the executive director of the commission.

(9) "Facilities" means all the plant and equipment of a retail public utility, including all tangible and intangible real and personal property without limitation, and any and all means and instrumentalities in any manner owned, operated, leased, licensed, used, controlled, furnished, or supplied for, by, or in connection with the business of any retail public utility.

(10) "Incident of tenancy" means water or sewer service, provided to tenants of rental property, for which no separate or additional service fee is charged other than the rental payment.

(11) "Member" means a person who holds a membership in a water supply or sewer service corporation and is a record owner of a fee simple title to property in an area served by a water supply or sewer service corporation or a person who is granted a membership and who either currently receives or will be eligible to receive water or sewer utility service from the corporation. In determining member control of a water supply or sewer service corporation, a person is entitled to only one vote regardless of the number of memberships the person owns.

(12) "Municipality" means cities existing, created, or organized under the general, home-rule, or special laws of this state.

(13) "Municipally owned utility" means any utility owned, operated, and controlled by a municipality or by a nonprofit corporation whose directors are appointed by one or more municipalities.

(13-a) "Municipal utility district" means a political subdivision of this state operating under Chapter 54.

(14) "Order" means the whole or a part of the final disposition, whether affirmative, negative, injunctive, or declaratory in form, of the regulatory authority in a matter other than rulemaking, but including issuance of certificates of convenience and necessity and rate setting.

(15) "Person" includes natural persons, partnerships of two or more persons having a joint or common interest, mutual or cooperative associations, water supply or sewer service corporations, and corporations.

(16) "Proceeding" means any hearing, investigation, inquiry, or other fact-finding or decision-making procedure under this chapter and includes the denial of relief or the dismissal of a complaint.

(16-a) "Public utility agency" means a public utility agency created under Chapter 572, Local Government Code.

(17) "Rate" means every compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, and classification or any of those items demanded, observed, charged, or collected whether directly or indirectly by any retail public utility for any service, product, or commodity described in Subdivision (23) of this section and any rules, regulations, practices, or contracts affecting that compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, or classification.

(18) "Regulatory authority" means, in accordance with the context in which it is found, the commission, the utility commission, or the governing body of a municipality.

(19) "Retail public utility" means any person, corporation, public utility, water supply or sewer service corporation, municipality, public utility agency, political subdivision or agency operating, maintaining, or controlling in this state facilities for providing potable water service or sewer service, or both, for compensation.

(20) "Retail water or sewer utility service" means potable water service or sewer service, or both, provided by a retail public utility to the ultimate consumer for compensation.

(21) "Service" means any act performed, anything furnished or supplied, and any facilities or lines committed or used by a retail public utility in the performance of its duties under this chapter to its patrons, employees, other retail public utilities, and the public, as well as the interchange of facilities between two or more retail public utilities.

(22) Repealed by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 521 (H.B. 2712), Sec. 5, eff. September 1, 2025.

(22-a) "Utility commission" means the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

(23) "Water and sewer utility," "public utility," or "utility" means any person, corporation, cooperative corporation, affected county, or any combination of these persons or entities, other than a municipal corporation, public utility agency, water supply or sewer service corporation, or political subdivision of the state, except an affected county, or their lessees, trustees, and receivers, owning or operating for compensation in this state equipment or facilities for the transmission, storage, distribution, sale, or provision of potable water to the public or for the resale of potable water to the public for any use or for the collection, transportation, treatment, or disposal of sewage or other operation of a sewage disposal service for the public, other than equipment or facilities owned and operated for either purpose by a municipality or other political subdivision of this state or a water supply or sewer service corporation, but does not include any person or corporation not otherwise a public utility that furnishes the services or commodity only to itself or its employees or tenants as an incident of that employee service or tenancy when that service or commodity is not resold to or used by others.

(24) "Water supply or sewer service corporation" means a nonprofit corporation organized and operating under Chapter 67 that provides potable water service or sewer service for compensation and that has adopted and is operating in accordance with by-laws or articles of incorporation which ensure that it is member-owned and member-controlled. The term does not include a corporation that provides retail water or sewer service to a person who is not a member, except that the corporation may provide retail water or sewer service to a person who is not a member if the person only builds on or develops property to sell to another and the service is provided on an interim basis before the property is sold.

(25) "Wholesale water or sewer service" means potable water or sewer service, or both, provided to a person, political subdivision, or municipality who is not the ultimate consumer of the service.

(26) "Affected county" is a county to which Subchapter B, Chapter 232, Local Government Code, applies.