The cost of preventing a water crisis in Texas over the next half century has soared to $174 billion, according to newly released official estimates.
The three-member Texas Water Development Board voted on Thursday to publish an initial draft of the 2027 State Water plan, providing a glimpse into how the state would need to prepare for conditions during a drought of record — when demands are high and supplies are lowest. The new total is more than double the previous $80 billion price tag from a few years ago.
The statewide 50-year water plan, updated every five years, is a combination of board’s 16 regional planning group’s findings and proposed projects. All North Texas counties, including Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant and others, are in Region C.
Texas is a drought-prone state where population growth and strategically-important industries — including high-tech data centers and manufacturing — keep growing. The resulting strain on natural resources makes long-term planning very important, according to experts. Meanwhile, residents have taken notice and voted to approve a historic $20 billion in funding for water supplies and infrastructure, but leaders fear that money won’t be enough.
Water infrastructure projects are becoming more costly and complex as regions pursue more distant supplies.
Planners said the significant increase in costs to implement the most-urgent projects was expected for a variety of reasons, including inflation in construction costs, extending the planning horizon another decade to 2080, lingering supply chain impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plan includes 3,000 projects and 6,700 strategies, such as recycled water and conservation, which officials say would provide 2.7 million acre-feet per year in additional water supplies in 2030.
“If strategies are not implemented over the next 50 years, approximately one out of four Texans in 2080 would have less than half the municipal water supplies they will require during a drought of record,” planners wrote.
A lack of implementation paired with a severe drought could also cause an estimated $91 billion in economic damages in 2030, potentially increasing to $177 billion per year by 2080.
The water board authorizing this draft is the first administrative step toward adopting the plan, which must be finalized by early January. Comments from the public on the plan will be accepted through May 29, with a hearing scheduled in Austin on May 27.
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.