Texas communities will need to spend $174 billion in the next 50 years to avert a severe water crisis, a new state analysis revealed Thursday. That\u2019s more than double the $80 billion projected four years ago, when the Texas Water Development Board last passed a state water plan.<\/p>\n
The three-member board presiding over the agency authorized the highly anticipated draft blueprint Thursday, the first administrative step toward adopting the water development board\u2019s plans for the next 50 years. The plan, released every five years, encompasses the projects that 16 regional water planning groups in Texas said are the most urgent, water development board officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s latest estimates come as the state\u2019s water supply faces numerous threats<\/a>. Growing communities across Texas are scrambling to secure water, keep up with construction costs and cope with a yearslong drought. This week, Corpus Christi officials said the city may be just months away<\/a> from declaring a water emergency. Meanwhile, other rural cities by the Coastal Bend are rapidly drilling wells to avoid a crisis. Residents in North Texas have also been bracing for groundwater shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an effort to restrain the crisis, lawmakers last year called an election in which voters approved a $20 billion boost<\/a> for communities to use on water-related expenses. The water development board\u2019s estimate shows that what lawmakers proposed on the ballot falls dramatically short of the needed cash, experts said. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat this number tells me at the end of the day is if we don\u2019t get serious about (funding water projects), there are going to be serious consequences for Texas,\u201d said Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network. \u201cEven with the billion-dollar-a-year plan kicking in, it\u2019s not going to be enough to offset the costs of the projects that are going to have to be executed.\u201d<\/p>\n The new estimate accounts for 3,000 projects, from regional infrastructure upgrades to smaller endeavors such as drilling new water wells. Texas\u2019 water supplies are expected to drop by roughly 10% between 2030 and 2080, according to the water plan. In that same time frame, the maximum amount of water communities can draw is also expected to decline by 9%.<\/p>\n The 80-page plan notes approximately 6,700 recommended strategies that would add water to the state\u2019s dwindling portfolio. The recommendations \u2014 which are not accounted for in the cost \u2014 include developing new supplies from aquifer storage and recovery, brackish groundwater, desalination and recycled water. It also calls for water conservation.<\/p>\n The report suggested that if Texas does not implement the plans and recommendations, the state is one severe drought away from an estimated $91 billion in economic<\/p>\n damages in 2030.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s plan attributes a variety of reasons for the bigger price tag, such as higher costs of construction due to inflation, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains, and a growing backlog of water supply projects. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a plan that can meet our needs,\u201d said Matt Nelson, deputy executive administrator for the Office of Planning at the water development board, adding that they take their cues from the regional planning groups. \u201cThese are local projects that folks need to implement; they\u2019re needed regardless of how they\u2019re funded. It\u2019s important to remember these are not top-down projects or state projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts told The Texas Tribune that the board\u2019s estimate is only a fraction of what Texas communities will need to ensure they have water in 50 years\u2019 time, saying growth and development are outpacing the state\u2019s ability to keep up. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a bigger water plan in terms of volume strategies and capital costs compared to anything we\u2019ve ever seen before,\u201d said Jeremy Mazur, the director of infrastructure and natural resources policy at think tank Texas 2036.<\/p>\n Mazur suggested that the $174 billion only covers water supply projects and does not account for updating aging infrastructure, adding that the actual price could amount to a quarter of a trillion dollars. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a substantial magnitude with regard to the capital investment needed to both fix our aging and current systems and potentially develop the water infrastructure, water supply projects that we need.\u201c<\/p>\n The report largely confirmed what many water experts have warned regarding threats to the state\u2019s water supply, said Sarah Kirkle, director of policy at the Texas Water Association.<\/p>\n \u201cPopulation growth, extreme weather, and economic development needs are all increasing demands on our infrastructure, and the state is going to need more water, sooner,\u201d Kirkle said. \u201cThis is all while water projects are becoming more costly and complex because the easiest and cheapest local projects have already been developed.\u201d<\/p>\n Fowler, with the infrastructure network, said he expects the Texas Legislature to take up the issue next year, when lawmakers meet for the 90th legislative session. He said the state should take a bigger role in ensuring that communities can afford their respective water projects. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to have to be a top-down priority, there\u2019s no way around it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe challenges are so immense that it\u2019s going to take all hands on deck.\u201d <\/p>\n Texas residents have until the end of May to comment on the proposal. Water development board officials must adopt it by January 2027. <\/p>\n Alejandra Martinez contributed to this story. <\/p>\n Disclosure: Texas 2036 has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas communities will need to spend $174 billion in the next 50 years to avert a severe water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[155,2327,287,1564,27,29,293,28,6042,2646],"class_list":["post-253250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-corpus-christi","tag-environment","tag-politics","tag-state-government","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-water-development-board","tag-water-supply"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}