Water Planning

A report issued by the non-profit Texas Center for Policy Studies (TCPS) finds that the current water planning process in Texas tends to over-estimate future water demand and under-estimate the potential for making better use of existing supplies. “This report shows that, with more reasonable demand projections and better use of conservation and drought management, the demand/supply gap in 2060 is less than one-half that predicted by the current 2012 State Water Plan issued by TWDB. Read more and download…

When it comes to water, Hays County’s cup overfloweth. That’s why county commissioners Monday pitched the idea of a regional corporation of governments that would reserve and divvy up water — a job that now mainly falls to individual cities or utility districts — to their counterparts in Travis and Williamson counties. Read more from the Austin American Statesman.

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) has opened their State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) rules making process for public comment. Participation in the rules making process is critical to ensure that the intentions of the State Legislature are carried out in the long-term administration of the State’s SWIFT funds. The HCA has submitted a list of recommendations to the TWDB that will help ensure spring and stream-flow sustainability in the Hill Country.

April 3, 2014 As part of the Texas Water Development Board’s ongoing efforts to promote awareness about water needs, the agency has launched an interactive website based on the 2012 State Water Plan. The website makes it easy for Texans to get details about water needs (also referred to as shortages or deficits) in multiple planning decades at the community, state, region, county and entity level. “This website is an example of the changes we are making to provide transparency…

Approval of “Prop 6” indirectly transferred $2 billion from the state’s “rainy day” fund into this new State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) to provide water for “non-rainy” days. But just moving money around doesn’t create water. That’s why what’s happening now at the state’s Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is so important. Read more from Ken Kramer at TexasLivingWaters.org.

Tom Hegemier Chair, Central Texas Land / Water Sustainability Forum March 17, 2014 We felt reassured by the fall rains, but most storms missed lakes Travis and Buchanan. Now the empty clouds of drought hover and the water supply clock ticks on. Drought again is a regular headline story: reservoirs are 38% full, driest January on record, hill country creek and river flows dwindle, most downstream farmers will not receive water for an unprecedented third year in a row, once–a-week…

Meet Dr. Katherine Lieberknecht. She is a professor in the University of Texas School of Architecture who proposes the revolutionary idea that stormwater runoff can – and should – be managed as a water resource, rather than as nuisance to be drained “away” as “efficiently” as practical. Read more from Waterblogue.

“The chairmanship is a posting that could easily tumble into cynicism, to the knowing feeling that despite legislative assurances that portions of the water money will be used for the sort of conservation project that Delia, the 9-year-old girl, favors, most of it will benefit the engineering, real estate and lobbying firms that have the most to gain from massive water projects.” Read the full story in the Austin American Statesman.

Texas Water Development Board Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is hosting a discussion about the implementation of historic legislation creating the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT), and we'd like your input. This discussion is the third of several meetings that TWDB is hosting related to prospective rulemaking for House Bill 4, 83rd Texas Legislature. At this meeting we will be focusing on how to define or measure the following items for the purpose of project prioritization: * How…