During the most recent legislative session, state lawmakers passed three pieces of legislation that collectively propose an amendment to the Texas Constitution that will provide funding for future water-supply projects in Texas. The amendment will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot as Proposition 6.
The constitutional amendment, according to the legislation, creates the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas. It then diverts $2 billion from the economic stabilization fund to the SWIFT and gives guidelines on how the money can be appropriated for water projects throughout the state.
During the past month, Gov. Rick Perry hosted several press conferences in support of Proposition 6.
“While we can’t make it rain,” Perry said at an Oct. 9 press conference at Lake Travis near Austin, “we can take measures that extend our existing water supply and work to develop new water supplies.”
However, some Texans oppose Perry’s and other state lawmakers’ plan to take money out of the state’s ESF.
“The high-rolling, big bankers of Texas have not answered why they need to divert $2 billion from the rainy day fund when there is $6 billion of unused bond money that is just sitting around untapped,” said Linda Curtis, a vocal opponent of Proposition 6, in a phone interview.
Curtis, the director of Independent Texas, said she is a resident of Bastrop County, which is currently in negotiations to sell its own drinking water to the City of Austin.
“We have this coalition of Green Party to Tea Party people that have all come together for a cause we all believe in,” Curtis said, describing the members of Independent Texas, a group challenging Proposition 6.
Perry said he believes the idea to take the money out of the ESF, instead of issuing bonds or creating a new tax, is what makes the legislation so important.
“How many other states would, or could, jump at the chance to solve a major challenge like this without having to raise taxes?” Perry said at a press conference on Oct. 2, next to the nearly dried-up O.C. Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo. “I suspect almost any other state would love to have that opportunity.”
Curtis said her organization is also upset with the lack of funding the legislation provides for many rural communities in Texas.
“These are false claims, that they are setting aside 10 percent for rural communities,” Curtis said.
According to the legislation, 10 percent of the SWIFT money will be appropriated to rural communities, and anther 20 percent should go towards agricultural water conservation efforts.
In an email, Ken Peterson, general counsel for the Texas Water Development Board, wrote that the legislation’s definition of a rural community is “a nonprofit water supply or sewer service corporation, district, or municipality with a service area of 10,000 or less in population.”
Curtis said she believes a ‘rural community’ is not well defined in the legislation and that the section requiring 10 percent of the fund be allocated to rural communities is too vague.
“The one thing we can agree on is: conservation first,” Curtis said. “We do not have a funding problem; we have a water problem.”
The TWDB was created by the Legislature to research and develop an official plan of how much water the state will need over the next 50 years and where that water will come from.
The 2012 State Water Plan, published by the TWDB, estimates the Llano Estacado region will need more than 3.7 million acre-feet a year in 2060. But there will only be 1.4 million acre-feet a year available for use in 2060, according to the State Water Plan.
The plan makes only one recommendation for water management in the Llano Estacado region: cutting the use of irrigation-water by 72 percent per year by 2060.
“Unmet irrigation needs [2,043,247 acre-feet] remain in 21 counties in the region in 2060,” the plan stated, “because there were no economically feasible strategies identified to meet their needs.”
Sarah Hamm, an advisor to Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, on water issues, said the Llano Estacado region could find itself in dire circumstances without funding from Proposition 6.
“If we don’t do this now,” Hamm said, “it’s going to cost us so much more in the future.”
Visit the Texas 2012 State Water Plan Interactive Map to see how much water your region expects to have over the next 50 years.
The author, Evan Dixon, a Tech journalism student, works for Sen. Duncan in constituent services.
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