ISSUES AND POLICY
A Water Plan for Texas By Larry Stalcup W
HILE PARTS OF TEXAS AND THE SOUTHWEST HAVE received ample rainfall this year, most of West Texas and the Panhandle remain
thirsty. So does the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It’s pretty near bone dry. Teaser showers haven’t been enough to break the catastrophic drought that has caused hundreds of thousands of cows to be liquidated, and groundwater supplies for irrigation are shrinking. But there’s a new Texas Water Plan in town. It will,
it is hoped, provide steps toward having plenty of the vital resource decades from now. It will still require an important vote in November, but the Texas Legis- lature and Gov. Rick Perry have taken steps to fi nally put a viable water plan on the books — one that Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) has supported. “It is a water plan TSCRA believes will have a posi-
tive impact on ranchers and rural Texas,” says Jason Skaggs, TSCRA executive director, government and pub- lic affairs. “House Bill 4 will help ensure that the state water plan is implemented, which in turn will provide more certainty to rural and agricultural water needs.” A key element of the plan involves using $2 billion
from what is ironically called the state Rainy Day Fund to help jump-start numerous water projects statewide. It will ignite some $30 billion designated for water de- velopment and conservation programs.
Agriculture will get its fair share “HB 4 states that 10 percent of money spent must
be for rural political subdivisions or agricultural water conservation,” Skaggs says. “It also states that 20 per- cent of the money spent be for water conservation and reuse, including agricultural irrigation conservation.” Over the next 50 years, water demand in Texas is
expected to increase by 22 percent. As our population swells, so do rural and urban areas and their need for quality water. The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) has a mission to provide leadership, plan- ning, fi nancial assistance, information and education for the conservation and responsible development of future water needs. TWBD oversees 16 Regional Water Planning Groups
94 The Cattleman August 2013
and their Regional Water Plans. Skaggs encourages TSCRA members and others to get involved. “Attend meetings in your area and get to know re-
gional water planning group members,” he says. “Get appointed to a regional water planning group.” Texas Farm Bureau sees benefi ts in having the Texas
Water Plan in place. Billy Howe, TFB state legislative director, points out that the water plan requires the 16 regional water planning groups to prioritize water proj- ects in their regional plans. TWDB would be required to rank projects on a points system. Projects that serve large populations, provide assistance to both urban and rural populations or those that provide regionalization will receive the highest points. “The intent is not for the TWBD to pick projects,
but when you’ve got 16 regional water planning groups and literally thousands of strategies that are part of the State Water Plan, you’ve got to fi gure out some way to prioritize those projects in the event that you have more applications for money than you have funds at that given time,” Howe says. “If you look at the $2 billion that they’re putting
into the fund, which is supposed to fi nance about $26 billion in projects through state loan assistance, that’s providing loan assistance to the tune of about $2.6 bil- lion in rural Texas. This fund is only for assistance on loans. There’s no grant money involved in this because it has to re-fund itself.” Since HB 4 also requires that 20 percent of the
funds go toward water conservation and reuse, Howe says agricultural projects can access that as well. “So that’s an additional $5.2 billion in funding,” he says. “When you look at it from that standpoint, agricultural conservation projects fi t into the 10 percent and the 20 percent set aside. That’s a pretty good deal.” Howe says the water plan should benefi t all. “You’ve
got 16 regional water planning groups that have identi- fi ed the needs for water over the next 60 years,” he says. “The State Water Plan is for everybody in the entire state. Having this State Water Implementation Fund is critical to being able to implement those projects.” TSCRA worked to make sure that rural and agri- cultural interests were adequately represented in HB
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