Water bills aim to secure state's future

Apr. 4—You often hear during state legislative sessions about proposed legislation and what it would do, but there is seldom a bill that seems a dead solid cinch to become law.

Such is Sen. Charles Perry's Senate Bill 28, which would mainly address long-term water problems in cities under 150,000 in population.

Perry, a Lubbock Republican, said Monday that he "would be shocked" if SB 28 doesn't get near-unanimous approval in the House and Senate in Austin and heavy support from statewide voters this fall.

"It's polling at least 90 percent in the Legislature and 90 percent or better with voters in the water issue polls," he said. "Texas is taking the lead in national water development. We can't expect to meet our water needs of tomorrow if we don't get on it today."

Perry said his proposed New Water Supply for Texas Fund, administered by the Texas Water Development Board, would help finance $190 billion to $300 billion in projects replacing old infrastructure and leading to the acquisition or creation of seven million acre-feet of new water supplies by Dec. 31, 2033.

It would provide low-interest loans to political subdivisions and wholesale water providers to develop water supply projects that created new water sources for the state including the acquisition of water from other states, the development of infrastructure to transport water from other states, projects including marine and brackish water desalination, produced water treatment projects and research into new technology that might lead to the development of significant new water supply sources.

The fund could also be used to provide zero interest loans, negative interest loans or loan forgiveness with possible repayment terms of up to 40 years, among other provisions.

Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, supports the bill and its companion, Senate Joint Resolution 75, which would put it on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Perry said small towns in West Texas and South Texas with infrastructure often dating back 70 years are a particular concern.

He said the big cities will get increased bonding authority as issues in small and medium-sized cities like Midland and Odessa, which was without water for several days last June after a major pipeline ruptured, are addressed. "The big guys will benefit if the little guys get fixed," the senator explained.

Perry is not concerned with moving water around the state from one area to another but rather with piping it in "from two or three contiguous states" with Arkansas being one possibility.

"We need a national conversation about water that has not happened yet," said Perry. chairman of the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

"We have oceans on the East and West and we need to bring water into the interior."

Asked if water could be piped from Canada, which has a plentiful supply, he said, "That would have been viable with the Keystone XL Pipeline before President Biden killed it.

"Texas does a pretty good job with roads and keeping the lights and cooling and heating on and all those basics, but there is no life without water. After seven days, your kidneys don't work and you die."

Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has filed a similar bill, HB 10.

Landgraf said the New Water Supply for Texas Fund "is a crucial step toward ensuring that the future supply in all regions will be there for generations to come.

"There is no question that we have water supply issues in District 81 because we live in a desert," he said. "There are numerous challenges like what we saw last year in the City of Odessa and there are concerns throughout the state as infrastructure built in the middle of the 20th Century is reaching the end of its productive life cycle.

"These loans can help us be sure that our water supplies are secure not only for the Permian Basin but also for the entire state."

State Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, said Tuesday that Perry's bills "are very broad legislation that seeks to address the long-term needs for the water supply of our state.

"The bills include provisions that allow for the research of both aquifer recharge and the recycling of oil and gas produced water, of which there are millions of barrels produced each day," Sparks said from Austin. "The Texas Water Fund will put real dollars into long-term water planning in the State of Texas.

"Once we crack the code to reclaiming even a portion of the millions of barrels of produced water we create every day, our state and region will benefit immensely."