ACQUISITION, CONSTRUCTION, AND OPERATION OF SYSTEMS

(a) The authority may: (1) acquire by purchase, gift, lease, contract, or any other legal means a water treatment or supply system, or any other works, plants, improvements, or facilities necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes of the authority, or any interest of the authority, inside or outside the authority's boundaries; (2) design, finance, operate, maintain, or construct a water treatment or supply system or any other works, plants, improvements, or facilities necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes of the authority and provide water services inside or outside the authority's boundaries; (3) lease or sell a water treatment or supply system or any other works, plants, improvements, or facilities necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes of the authority that the authority constructs or acquires inside or outside the authority's boundaries; (4) contract with any person to operate or maintain a water treatment or supply system the person owns; or (5) acquire water rights under any law or permit. (b) Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, the provisions of Chapter 49, Water Code, pertaining to competitive bidding apply to the authority. (c) The authority may contract, according to terms and conditions the board considers desirable, fair, and advantageous, with a person outside the authority's boundaries: (1) to allow the person to be included in a groundwater reduction plan adopted or implemented wholly or partly by the authority or in a groundwater reduction plan in which the authority participates; (2) to sell water to the person; or (3) to sell the person available excess capacity or additional capacity of the authority's water treatment or supply system. (d) The authority by rule may require that the plans and specifications of water lines to be constructed within the authority that are designed or intended to serve more than one member district or more than one person owning or holding a well permit issued by the subsidence district be approved by the authority before the commencement of construction of the water lines.