The Texas Legislature has approved a historic commitment to avert a water crisis, planning a $20 billion investment in state water infrastructure over the next two decades. Senate Bill 7 (SB 7) and House Joint Resolution 7 (HJR 7) are now awaiting the governor’s signature. Voters will have the opportunity to weigh in on the amendments in November.
SB 7 would establish the administrative framework needed to coordinate water conveyance projects and planning. As water supplies continue to be threatened, impacting millions of Texans living in drought-affected regions, the legislation would reinforce critical infrastructure needed to protect water resources for 50 years.
Once codified into law, the state would establish an office dedicated to overseeing these projects. The board’s responsibilities include:
- Developing infrastructure to transport water.
- Facilitating planning and coordination between all entities participating in relevant projects.
- Creating guidance and best practices for standardizing specifications, materials and components in water conveyance projects.
- Developing standards and guidance to support interconnectivity and interoperability between different systems created to transport water from different projects. The agency is also authorized to take additional necessary actions to accomplish these goals.
- Streamline the creation of mechanical and technical standards for integrating water made available through water conveyance infrastructure and projects.
Texas is projected to rapidly change as the population booms and the economy flourishes, raising the demand for reliable, safe water sources. To meet the demand, it’s estimated that the state would need to inject at least $154 billion over the next five decades into water infrastructure and supply improvements.
HJR 7 would further empower the state to avert the looming water crisis, amending the Texas constitution to allocate $1 billion each year until 2047 to support water projects.
The commission would allocate funding from the Water Fund to support approved projects. These initiatives would be critical in creating new water sources leveraging feasible, novel methodologies to address supply needs. These strategies focus on producing:
- Desalination projects, including in marine and brackish water.
- Produced water treatment projects.
- Aquifer storage and recovery projects.
- Shovel-ready reservoir projects.
- Water infrastructure to transport or integrate surface water or water from outside the state into water supply systems.
Further funding may be made available through House Bill 500, a supplementary budget bill signed by the Senate and House and currently in the hands of the comptroller. Voter approval would provide an investment of $2.6 billion in infrastructure projects through the Texas Water Development Board. The state would be able to draw down from federal dollars to advance qualifying projects.
The 2022 State Water Plan projects that Texas will experience up to an 18% decline in water availability soon, potentially facing a water shortage by 2030.
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