Texas lawmakers took steps big and small to help save the state’s water supply.
A big one: investing $20 billion in water projects over the next two decades. A small one: banning homeowners’ associations from punishing residents who don’t have bright green lawns.
The state’s water supply is in peril. Legislators saw this year as their last chance to invest before the state faces calamity. Rapid population growth, aging infrastructure and extreme climate events like drought and flood have put pressure on the state’s lakes and rivers. A Texas Tribune analysis found that cities and towns could be on a path toward a severe water shortage by 2030 if there is recurring, record-breaking drought conditions across the state, and if water entities and state leaders fail to put in place key strategies to secure water supplies.
“One of the great things about the legislative session around water is it is more of a bipartisan issue,” said Jennifer Walker, director for the Texas Coast and Water program with the National Wildlife Federation. “And there’s a great community of folks working together to find solutions.”
Here’s a look at some of the actions lawmakers took on water.
Wins for local water supply
A significant victory was House Bill 29 by Rep. Stan Gerdes, R-Smithville, which targets water loss in large utilities with over 150,000 service connections. The bill requires regular water loss audits, external validation of the data, and the development of mitigation plans. Utilities that fail to comply face administrative fees.
“We need to make sure that we are using the water supplies that we already have as efficiently as possible,” Walker said.
A recent report by the National Wildlife Federation found that 516 water utilities plan to save over 270,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2034 — enough water to meet the annual water needs of 1.7 million Texans — through conservation strategies like leak detection and minimizing water loss.
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Research bills fail to make progress
Even as lawmakers showed interest in solutions for the water crisis, several bills researching different methods died in the legislative process.
One is House Bill 1501 by state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington. The bill would have instructed the Texas State University Meadows Center for Water and the Environment to study the feasibility of seawater desalination processes.
House Bill 3728 by Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, D-Houston, which would have required salinity studies and standards to protect coastal bays and estuaries from seawater desalination, failed to pass. Walker said it highlighted growing concerns about the environmental impacts of desalination.
“It’s a delicate balance,” Walker said. “If we screw it up, we risk having problems with the habitat for the plants and animals that are there — and it may be difficult or expensive or impossible to fix. We need to go in with our eyes wide open and make good choices so we can have water for our communities without damaging our coastal ecosystems.”
