This year, Texas lawmakers approved "the largest generational investment" in the state's water system: $20 billion over the next two decades to the Texas Water Fund.
The funds will back improvements to aging water infrastructure and new strategies to increase the state's water supply, including methods like desalination and creating more wastewater treatment facilities in rural areas like West Texas.
To sign these bills into law, Gov. Greg Abbott went to Lubbock on Wednesday. The setting was appropriate given that many residents of the quickly growing region are concerned about its decreasing groundwater supply.
The Texas Water Development Board's 2022 State Water Plan expects water availability in the state to decline by 18% between 2020 and 2070, with groundwater from aquifers refilling slower than the population is expected to grow.
A 'productive future' for Texas water
At Wednesday's bill signing, set at an industrial water engineering facility, Abbott was joined by two of Lubbock's top Republicans: Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and state Sen. Charles Perry.
Sen. Perry said the heavy cost of addressing the state's water problem has historically made getting the necessary approval a challenge in a fiscally conservative state like Texas.
Perry, who filed Senate Bill 7, referred to it as a "three-legged stool," combining local and state support with cost recovery to continuously support the state's water infrastructure.
"We figured out how to craft legislation that alleviated all the concerns of the past so that we can have a productive future going forward with respect to meeting the water needs," Perry said.
Historically, Perry said water solutions have often developed in city-by-city conversations. Part of his goal with SB 7 is to coordinate the bureaucracy behind these efforts. As Perry's district is only one of many in Texas that are directly threatened by drought, he has called for this bill to benefit the whole state.
While SB 7 is designed to develop new water sources, Gov. Abbott said it also aims to reinforce aging infrastructure that currently costs the state water.
"We lose about 88 billion gallons of water a year because of broken, busted and aged pipes," Abbott said. "So we have an across-the-board urgency to make sure that we address the water issues."
Abbott said this will bring updates to water systems for cities across the state. Natural Resources Committee chair Cody Harris (R-Palestine) described this year's water legislation as a "generational" approach to maintaining the state's water needs, from east to west Texas.
"It is one of the most important issues for the state of Texas to dig our heels in, roll up our sleeves, and try to solve this problem for future generations of Texans," Harris said.
The other bill signed on Wednesday, House Joint Resolution 7, would dedicate a portion of sales tax to the Texas Water Fund with a constitutional amendment that Texas voters will decide on in November.
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