Less than a year ago, Texas voters approved a historic $20 billion investment for water supply and infrastructure to be invested over the next two decades. But lawmakers knew then and now it was just a down payment on a long-term funding structure for the state\u2019s greatest need.<\/p>\n
The reality of that need is now harrowingly clear.\u00a0A draft for the\u00a02027\u00a0State Water\u00a0Plan<\/a>\u00a0more than\u00a0doubles the\u00a0projected\u00a0water\u00a0needs for the state. This means the\u00a0cost to\u00a0prevent\u00a0severe\u00a0water shortages<\/a> over\u00a0the next five decades is\u00a0now\u00a0$174 billion.\u00a0Construction costs and lingering supply chain\u00a0issues\u00a0keep\u00a0moving\u00a0the goalposts\u00a0further away.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, increasing the allocation for the Texas Water Fund is not the solution. The Legislature has already carried a heavy load in the last two sessions. Instead, the state needs to be strategic in investments and ensure future projects are completed on time.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Legislature also\u00a0expanded\u00a0the Texas Water Fund Advisory Committee,\u00a0which\u00a0provides\u00a0recommendations and\u00a0an\u00a0additional\u00a0layer of oversight\u00a0to\u00a0the Texas Water Development Board, the agency in charge of managing the\u00a0water fund. This oversight would be important in\u00a0helping with\u00a0what projects\u00a0need to\u00a0be prioritized.<\/p>\n Our state will still face droughts, but\u00a0growth is\u00a0also\u00a0going to continue for the\u00a0next\u00a0few\u00a0decades.\u00a0This means\u00a0Texas needs\u00a0to\u00a0identify\u00a0projects that expand water resilience, said\u00a0Jeremy Mazur, director of infrastructure and natural resources policy for think tank Texas 2036.<\/p>\n Location matters. Projects need to be in areas likely to be affected by extreme drought, but also where a high level of economic growth is expected. West Texas is perennially in drought, but it does not have much population growth. Instead, focus on areas with economic and population growth, like the region surrounded by San Antonio, Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley, which is also prone to droughts.<\/p>\n Planners\u00a0would need\u00a0to make\u00a0sure that water supply infrastructure can serve\u00a0multiple communities.\u00a0Small and mid-size communities need to work together to\u00a0optimize\u00a0their water supply, Mazur said.<\/p>\n These policy decisions\u00a0will have an impact.\u00a0There is\u00a0no\u00a0better example right now than Corpus Christi, a city considering\u00a0severe\u00a0water restrictions<\/a>\u00a0amid a\u00a0relentless\u00a0drought.<\/p>\n Corpus Christi\u2019s\u00a0overreliance\u00a0on\u00a0reservoir water supply\u00a0has proven to be a\u00a0liability, Mazur told us.\u00a0El Paso\u00a0and\u00a0San Antonio,\u00a0also\u00a0in drought-prone areas,\u00a0have had success\u00a0by\u00a0expanding their water\u00a0supply\u00a0portfolios, which include\u00a0conservation, water\u00a0reuse\u00a0and\u00a0desalination of brackish groundwater.<\/p>\n \u201cCorpus Christi\u2019s crisis is a massive clarion call to action, not for more money, but for being more strategic, deliberate and purposeful\u00a0in\u00a0regard to what the state is going to pay in terms of water infrastructure,\u201d Mazur said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Choosing the right projects for water resilience will be as important as delivering infrastructure on time.\u00a0Droughts will still come, and the costs will only add up.<\/p>\n Have thoughts about this?\u00a0Send a letter to the editor\u00a0using our letters form<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>. Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a year ago, Texas voters approved a historic $20 billion investment for water supply and infrastructure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-272627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272627","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=272627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}