Matthew Watkins (left) and Senator Charles Perry (right). Image from screen capture of Texas Tribune live discussion.
Texas is in trouble because it’s 20 years behind on water supply projects, said Charles Perry (R), State Senator from Lubbock, during a live interview Thursday with the Texas Tribune in Austin.
“When you really get down with the people that are paying attention, they’ll tell you we’re in trouble,” Perry said, who wants a statewide water system like the power grid. The people who work on projects that supply water for Lubbock hope Perry’s efforts help them.
“That’s the thing about water. If you need it 20 years from now, you better be working on it today because it won’t be here if you’re not,” Perry said to in-person and online audiences.
Some areas of the state are already drying up. Matthew Watkins, the Tribune’s editor-in-chief, mentioned the Santa Rosa sugar mill – the only one in Texas – not too far from Harlingen. It closed permanently about a year ago.
The Texas Standard reported at the time, “Years of drought have devastated sugar growers in South Texas.”
Perry acknowledged Watkins’ concern by pointing out the Rio Grande Valley used to grow 40 varieties of citrus. Now it’s down to 10, he said.
Farmers in the Lubbock area used to draw water from shallow wells. Now it might be 300 feet deep with levels continuing to drop, Perry said.
Concerning his fellow lawmakers in Austin, Perry said, “Not sure they had an interest in water until their districts were starting to run dry.”
No local solutions – call in the state
“We left water supply … at a local level since the inception of Texas,” Perry said.
It’s time to move it into a statewide system, Perry said.
“No mayor can tell their constituents, ‘I need $30 a month from you for the next 30 years to have a water supply that you’ll never drink from.’ That’s a political no go,” Perry said.
So, water projects tend to be as simple and cheap as possible. What can taxpayers afford? Then, “reverse engineer” a project to meet that budget, Perry said.
That won’t work anymore.
“All the cheap water in Texas is tied up,” Perry said.
As one example of increasing cost, the Lake 7 project just outside the East Loop in Lubbock is more than $200 million according to the state’s 2020 water plan. But city officials last year estimated it could go up to $300 million for the project to supply another 10 million gallons of water per day in Lubbock.
Wood Franklin, Lubbock’s director of public works, said, “Hopefully, some of those funding resources might be available for us to use in our Lake 7 project.”
“Hopefully, we can benefit long term from his pipeline project,” Franklin also said.
Lubbock, Amarillo and the other cities in the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority (CRMWA) might need a 70-mile pipeline in the future to expand groundwater capabilities (mostly in Roberts County).
Drew Satterwhite, CRMWA executive director said, “Another pipeline will range anywhere from probably $550 million to $850 million. That includes wells, two pump stations and about 70 miles of pipeline.”
And if CRMWA needs a reverse osmosis system to remove salt from Lake Meredith, that could cost $200 million. Maybe more. The salt has to go somewhere – possibly a deep injection well.
CRMWA hopes to know more this year after completing a water supply study.
Perry said, “Small cities actually have no taxing jurisdiction to keep up with the cost of this.”
Some places don’t even have the money to fix leaking water mains.
The quantities are so big, they’re not measured in gallons. They’re measured in acre feet, which is the sheer volume of water you need to cover one acre of land with one foot of water.
Perry estimated Texas loses 450,000 acre feet every year to leaky pipes. That’s 146.6 billion gallons going right into the Texas dirt.
Ongoing coverage: Click here to see our previous stories on this issue.
Buckets of money
Three things need to be done, Perry said, and each needs a “bucket” of money.
- Texas needs a water grid system – kind of like the electric grid or the state highway system.
- New water supplies need to be developed including reusing wastewater from oil and gas and desalinating water from the Gulf of America (or Gulf of Mexico, depending on your preference).
- Cities need to fix their leaky pipes.
Perry asked fellow lawmakers to put up $5 billion this year, which he thinks might get cut to $2.5 billion. It’ll still be enough to get started.
In November, he’ll ask Texas voters to commit $1 billion (from sales taxes) per year from now on in the form of a constitutional amendment.
Texans in November 2023 approved $1 billion for the Texas Water Fund.
The fund will put some of that money into rural water projects. Some of it will be used in a 70/30 match with local conservation or water loss prevention projects. And some of it will be used to develop new sources of water. (Click here for details)
All 254 counties ‘close enough’ to use it
The water grid – a state pipeline system – will carry water from sources like lakes or well fields to cities that can act as distribution centers.
“That’s the best economics of scale because you share the cost of the pipeline across the entire state, just like a state highway. … And 254 counties will be close enough to the new supply pipes … every one of them terminating to an existing distribution center.”
Perry thinks the cost is $65 billion over 20 to 30 years.
Cities pay a fee to use the system.
“The system starts paying the state back. It truly sets up a perpetual funding source that going forward we can address all of the other water needs with it,” Perry said.
Somebody needs to manage it.
“We don’t have a state agency that builds pipelines today,” Perry said.
Senate Bill 7 (not officially filed yet) will create an oversight board – something like ERCOT but for the state’s water system.
“I call it the air traffic controller. We can build a pipeline that will cover multiple [water] source[s]. … But it will traverse multiple jurisdictions and counties and cities,” Perry said.
Voters, not lawmakers
The plan is to jumpstart Texas projects with up to $5 billion in the current legislative session.
“I hope to establish a lump sum to show a commitment to industries that we are serious about fixing water,” Perry said.
But the rest is up to voters in a constitutional amendment. Why voters – why not lawmakers?
“We come down here with different agendas and hot buzz words every session,” Perry said.
And there’s a temptation to cut projects if there’s trouble in the economy. Vendors (or contractors) don’t like bidding a project that might get cut halfway through.
“You don’t want vendors going, ‘Well, if the economy’s down I can’t start this 10-year contract. I gotta know I’m going to get paid for the work I’m doing every time.’ It’s critical that you provide predictability – continuity of funding,” Perry said.
If it goes on the ballot, voters decide. From there, the funding is a done deal and perfectly predictable.
“You just need to take the politics and the economy out of it,” Perry said.
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