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Texas camp owners on Friday urged the state health agency to give them more time and flexibility on costly new safety requirements, saying they could be forced to close by next summer.

“We support the goal of making camps safer,” said Riley Watkins, owner of Camp Oak Haven, west of Houston. “Let's work together to find a way for these new bills to work with us instead of against us.”

It was the first time youth camp owners got a peek at what two landmark bills passed this year, following the July 4 flooding deaths of 27 Camp Mystic campers and counselors , would mean for them come next summer.

Imelda Garcia, chief deputy commissioner of the Texas Department

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