DIVE DEEPER
Our Research and Publications - Water for Wildlife
Water for Wildlife
September 15, 2026
Texas is facing a growing water supply gap, driven by rapid population growth, increasing demand, and intensifying droughts. Municipal water reuse offers one of the most significant and underutilized opportunities to help close that gap while strengthening drought resilience, supporting economic growth, and protecting rivers and aquifers. This report examines the role that water reuse can and will play in advancing statewide sustainability, including the role water reuse plays in the State Water Plan, case studies for successful water reuse planning and implementation, opportunities for accelerating water reuse, and policy recommendations at the state and local levels to help scale water reuse.
June 1, 2026
The rapid proliferation of data centers and other large tech facilities across the country has raised concerns about water consumption and how the economic benefits of a quickly growing industry can be balanced with responsible measures to safeguard limited water supplies. Texas is at the forefront of this national conversation. Recognizing the high stakes at play, Texas Living Waters and Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) have developed the following recommendations to support the Legislature’s commitment to securing Texas water for future generations and the state’s continued prosperity.
May 18, 2026
We are pleased to share Texas Living Waters Impact Report, 2025: A Historic Year for Water in Texas. Last year, the Texas Legislature and voters approved historic funding for water infrastructure and new water supply – $20 billion over the next 20 years. This is the largest dedicated state-funding for water in US history! See how the TLW coalition was involved in this and other water policy advances by engaging with state agencies, testifying at the Capitol, publishing timely policy papers, and framing the issue in the media. In our impact report, we highlight ongoing work to advance knowledge on important and timely topics, such as seawater desalination, produced water, water conservation and water loss mitigation, and data centers and water use. We also share our work to bring people together to learn practical tools for One Water planning, to ensure water for wildlife, and to keep communities safe from flooding.
May 20, 2025
Water conservation and water loss mitigation offer the potential to save significant volumes of water, thereby extending supplies and offsetting the need for larger and more expensive infrastructure. Recognizing the importance of these strategies, Texas water utilities are planning on saving over 270,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2034 – enough water to meet the annual water needs of 1.7 million Texans. Learn how utilities will meet these goals and how decision makers can support their efforts.
April 15, 2025
Texas’ population growth and recurring significant droughts coupled with increasingly stressed water supplies have driven state lawmakers to focus on developing and investing in new water supplies, including produced water. Produced water is the wastewater byproduct that exits the production well along with oil and gas for the life of the producing well. As Texas decision-makers look at ways to manage this waste stream and any potential alternate uses, we must recognize there are many knowledge, regulatory, technological and cost gaps to be addressed to ensure healthy communities, protection of water resources and cost effectiveness. Download our Produced Water Fact Sheet and Paper to see how decision-makers can help ensure responsible deployment of new supply strategies such as produced water so that our Texas communities, waterways and wildlife can thrive.
September 23, 2021
This guidebook, a joint project of the Hill Country Alliance and National Wildlife Federation, is intended to connect Hill Country communities facing growth and increased demands for water with water professionals experienced with One Water strategies, planning, implementation, design and construction. We interviewed engineers, architects, planners and landscape designers to gain insight into the realities of One Water projects, and within these pages feature the 14 selected professionals along with an example project each completed in Texas.
Finding and connecting with consultants who can be trusted with a community’s most precious resource—its water—is a serious undertaking, and we hope this guidebook gives you a good place to start. Our organizations are committed to help you along the way as well.
September 15, 2021
Water reuse projects are a proven solution to the state’s water availability challenges, but many more could be built if developers took greater advantage of a statewide financing program for water and energy conservation improvements known as PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy).
A new report by the National Wildlife Federation and Texas Water Trade highlights the vast potential – as well as the challenges – of using PACE to finance the upfront capital costs of water reuse, including development of onsite infrastructure for capturing and reusing non-potable water such as rainwater and air conditioner condensate as well as connecting and reusing a utilities’ recycled wastewater (known as purple pipe infrastructure).
October 6, 2020
Landscape irrigation is estimated to be the single-largest component of municipal water use in Texas. Municipal water demand, in turn, is the second-largest category of water use in the state, second only to agriculture. Texas communities aiming to use water supplies efficiently, therefore, need to take a hard look at the lawn. For this reason and as part of a greater effort to enable a resilient water future for Texas, the Texas Living Waters Project has performed an analysis of how each water provider in North Texas is approaching outdoor water use. We ask if communities are limiting the number of days per week that customers can water their lawns or simply limiting the number of hours per day automatic irrigation systems can be operated? We then examine both how much water can be saved through outdoor irrigation management and how much water we need to save to meet the region’s future water needs.