Texas water officials seek more funding as crisis worsens, costs soar: ‘This is not going to stop’

AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Texas water officials pleaded with members of the Texas House Natural Resources committee on Tuesday to provide more funding for water supply projects as project costs skyrocket.

Despite the Texas Legislature allocating increased funding to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) in 2013, and again last year, water experts are concerned about a lack of funding available for local governments to undertake needed water infrastructure projects.

In 2013, the Legislature passed House Bill 4, which created the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT). This fund had an initial investment of $2 billion and provided communities with low-interest financing to address state water plan projects. Examples of these projects include building new pipelines and conservation efforts.

The plan was to use that initial investment as the base of an endowment to build a sustainable fund — funneling $27 billion towards water infrastructure projects for 50 years. However, Bryan McMath, executive director for TWDB, says their drafted 2027 five-year State Water Plan far exceeds current funding.

“It’s an ongoing challenge. We do our absolute best to essentially squeeze as much capacity as we can out of our financial assistance programs, but there is growing demand as evidenced very clearly by the kind of new $174 billion price tag for the State Water Plan,” McMath told lawmakers Tuesday.

McMath clarified that increased costs are attributed to a wide range of factors, including inflationary pressure, labor costs, and........

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