Legislation in the works to form seven-county water authority, expanded from original two counties

Mar. 25—A bill is being fashioned in Austin to unite Parker, Palo Pinto and five neighboring counties in a regional water authority.

Two of three local water planners reached for this story said it was news to them that Graford lawmaker Rep. Glenn Rogers is building a measure to create the Cross Timbers Regional Utility Authority.

The idea is an expansion on a months-long plan to unite Parker and Palo Pinto counties in a regional water authority. The plan, which surfaced at a Dec. 21, 2022, meeting in Mineral Wells attended by some 60 stakeholders, soon took in Stephens County.

Rogers, R-Graford, had convened that meeting in the Crazy Water Hotel Ballroom where he promised to file a "shell bill" for the two-county partnership. The details would be worked out, he said, during the 88th Legislature which would convene weeks later.

That plan now includes seven counties, adding Jack, Eastland, Erath and Young counties.

All the better, local water planners said this week. If two or three counties speak louder than one, seven have a megaphone.

"I applaud Dr. Rogers for trying hard to get this through," David Turk, president of the board governing the Lake Palo Pinto Municipal Water District No. 1, said of the lawmaker's effort to give rural interests more clout in Austin.

The municipal water district provides most of the water for Palo Pinto and western Parker counties.

Turk said Wednesday he had yet to learn of the expanded water coalition. But, he got the point.

"That's what it's designed to do, is so we would have more of a voice in getting money for infrastructure and money that's already allocated in the state of Texas that would be better utilized in a region than in a district," he said.

Rogers' chief of staff did not respond to questions sent requesting the lawmaker's comment on his legislation.

Parker County Precinct 3 Commissioner Larry Walden, a strong supporter of the two-county plan, said Rogers is looking ahead with the larger proposal.

"He told me we were encouraged to put any county in there that might be needed in the future," Walden said, describing a 60-day public notice period the Cross Timbers Regional Utility Authority must cross before a bill is filed. "It is the bill that would establish the regional utility authority that would give us strength, that would give us regional planning capability."

Walden's Precinct 3 is largely the rural southwest quarter of Parker County. It's also embedded in the Brazos River basin, while the eastern half of the county shares the Trinity River basin with the more politically weighty Metroplex next door.

"We've obviously been overlooked for years in water planning," Walden said. "But, as far as any of us living here in the Brazos basin, there's not been a lot of work. So, that's what I think (Rogers) is trying to accomplish."

There could be an additional reason the timing is right for rural counties to band together for water needs.

Howard Huffman, general manager of Lake Palo Pinto's municipal water district, said Texas Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, has filed a bill that would make water funding a permanent line item in the state budget.

Perry's Senate Bill 837 creates the Water for Texas Fund within the state treasury and separate from the general fund. That means it could only be spent on water projects.

"It's going to make this (funding source) permanent, just like for highways and law enforcement and other things the state does," Huffman said.

SB 837 has been assigned to the Senate's Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, where Perry is the chairman.

Another rural North Texan, Republican Sen. Drew Springer of Muenster, also is on that committee.

The Senate bill's identical companion in the House, HB 2483, has been sent to that chamber's Natural Resources Committee where Rogers is a member.

The Water for Texas fund would be administered by the Texas Water Development Board. That, in turn, is where a seven-county Cross Timbers Authority would raise its voice for projects such as the planned Turkey Peak Reservoir.

That lake is envisioned immediately south of Lake Palo Pinto.

The city of Mineral Wells and the lake board have secured most of the necessary property but are in the very early stages of trying to land the $170 million estimated cost of a dam and moving Farm-to-Market 4.

"We are well-positioned, with some other legislation coming out, that we already have a project that's permitted," Huffman said. "(Turkey Peak) has already been through 20 years of bureaucracy."

Huffman said the seven-county plan was a good — and needed — one.

"But what does the bill actually say?" he asked. "I'm sure once (Rogers) has more details he will share them."