SPI Insights

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) approved $499 million in funding towards the building of the Lower Bois d’Arc Creek Reservoir in Fannin County. This is the second portion of an application received from the North Texas Municipal Water District during the third funding cycle of the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) program. In July 2017, the TWDB committed $677 million for the first phase of this project. The money goes to the North Texas Municipal Water District as part of a $1.1 billion investment in the reservoir project. After 15 years of permitting and planning, construction is slated to begin this spring on the Lower Bois d’Arc Creek Reservoir and should be completed by 2022.

The reservoir is expected to provide drinking water for more than a million and a half people in 80 communities in Northeast Texas. The reservoir is the first to be built in Texas since 1987. The project includes a new 70-million-gallon-per-day water treatment plant to be based west of Leonard. The funding comes on the heels of the announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it received and accepted a long-awaited federal permit to construct the reservoir.