(The Center Square) – Within hours of two county commissioners and judges passing resolutions calling for regional and state oversight of water conservation, Gov. Greg Abbott urged them and other entities to apply for $1 billion worth of grants made available through a Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) Water Supply and Infrastructure Grant opportunity (WSIG).
The grant application deadline is July 30. The TWDB is also hosting webinars on Thursday, April 23 and Wednesday May 13.
“Water is a precious resource that must be safeguarded,” Abbott said less than three hours after The Center Square broke the story that judges had begun to pass a joint resolution addressing a water crisis facing South Texas.
Goliad County Judge Mike Bennett and county commissioners unanimously signed the first resolution Monday night. On Tuesday morning, Refugio County Judge Jhiela “Gigi” Poynter and county commissioners were the second to do so. Dozens more are expected to follow, including water conservation boards.
“Most of the judges in our area are on board and we expect the governor to act,” Bennett told The Center Square in an exclusive interview. “Passing the resolution shows there is consensus among Coastal Bend judges to take action before the water crisis becomes an absolute catastrophe. Those living in rural areas depend on wells and groundwater. You either have water in your well or you don’t.”
The first two joint resolutions were passed after the judges held a meeting last Tuesday in Goliad where they sounded the alarm about a water crisis their communities are facing due to policies being enacted by Corpus Christi and other officials.
While the legislature has allocated billions of dollars for investment in water infrastructure, they argue the legislature and governor must act immediately to establish state laws governing private property water rights. None exist and they and others find themselves in the “wild west,” with neighboring municipalities “stealing their water,” they argue, The Center Square exclusively reported.
Last year, Abbott listed water infrastructure investment as a legislative emergency agenda item for the state legislature to address. The legislature passed three measures, which he signed into law. They include Senate Bill 7, which relates to TWDB oversight and financing of water infrastructure projects, House Joint Resolution 7, which proposed a constitutional amendment to dedicate a portion of the revenue derived from state sales and use taxes to the Texas Water Fund; and HB 500, which authorized the TWDB to provide 100% grant funding for eligible water supply and water infrastructure projects. They include water supply and water infrastructure improvements, system replacements, reuse efforts, addressing real or apparent water loss and resolving Texas Commission on Environmental Quality violations, among others.
Combined, they allocated $20 billion toward investing in new water supplies and alternatives and repairing existing infrastructure.
Texas voters also overwhelmingly approved the constitutional amendment, Proposition 4, by a vote of 70%. It requires the legislature to dedicate up to $1 billion of taxpayer money for the Texas Water Fund every fiscal year, The Center Square reported.
The judges appreciate funding for water infrastructure and solutions but argue there’s a bigger problem: no legal protections for water rights exists for ranchers, farmers and homeowners. There are also no limitations on municipalities that are taking the majority of aquifer water and no accountability for how state money is spent, including Corpus officials receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from the state to build a desalinization plant and not building one.
After Corpus Christi officials began pumping water in western Nueces County, Orange Grove officials in Jim Wells County noticed immediate changes in the city’s groundwater system, including shifts in water levels and water quality, that were “outside normal conditions.” Officials began “taking proactive steps to protect our water supply” and hired experts to investigate the sudden drop, they said. They and others may have to mandate water conservation measures by the summer if they don’t get rain.
Similar problems have been reported in San Patricio County. Nearly $1 billion has been poured into Corpus Christi for water management yet the region is still facing a water crisis, critics argue. The lakes are expected to be dry by the summer unless consistent heavy rainfall comes to provide relief from a drought that is compounding a water management problem.
The nearly $1 billion worth of funds Corpus has hasn’t solved the water problem, the judges argue. They are calling for a legal enforceable framework with consequences they argue would help lessen the damage that’s already been caused. Along the Coastal Bend and into South Texas, 54 counties rely on one major aquifer as well as river basins for water. There is no law preventing one municipality from draining the regional water source or protecting ranchers and farmers and rural residents from losing their well water.
“All counties and all municipalities are subdivisions of the state. Our authority starts with the Texas Constitution and goes to the state legislature,” Bee County Judge George Morrill said. The legislature and governor are responsible for establishing a level playing field, to say, ‘These are the rules that the counties are going to abide by,"” he said. “We don’t have that. Until we do, it’s going to continue to be a free for all.”
