Cities, counties and rural water user groups across Texas submitted thousands of project ideas for the 2012 State Water Plan. Combined, the projects on their wish lists would cost about $53 billion.
In November, voters will decide whether to give the Texas Water Development Board $2 billion to loan out for state water plan projects. If that is approved, local entities could apply to the board for money to complete projects on their wish lists.
In the visualization below, explore the most expensive projects on each Texas regions' wish list. Some of proposals are pie-in-the-sky or hotly debated, and others are already underway.
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Amarillo | Roberts County well field - Amarillo | $287,377,200 |
Amarillo | Potter County well field | $128,511,300 |
Palo Duro River Authority | Palo Duro Reservoir | $114,730,000 |
Canadian River Municipal Water Authority | CRMWA acquisition of water rights | $88,200,000 |
Canadian River Municipal Water Authority | CRMWA Roberts County well field | $21,824,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Wichita Falls | Construct Lake Ringgold | $382,900,000 |
Regional Water Provider-Wichita Basin Chloride Control Project | Wichita Basin chloride control project | $95,450,000 |
Irrigation, Wichita | Enclose canal laterals in pipe | $7,658,469 |
Irrigation, Wichita | Wichita River diversion | $5,380,000 |
County-Other, Wilbarger | Purchase water from local provider | $1,658,700 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Tarrant Regional WD | Marvin Nichols Reservoir | $2,371,116,000 |
North Texas MWD | Facility improvements | $2,295,829,800 |
Dallas | Fastrill replacement (Region C component) | $1,980,278,000 |
Dallas | Water treatment plant - expansion | $1,068,033,000 |
Tarrant Regional WD | Toledo Bend project (Region I entities responsible for 20 percent of cost) | $1,000,766,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Hickory Creek SUD | Drill new well | $7,831,144 |
County-Other, Van Zandt | Drill new well | $5,886,954 |
Wolfe City | New surface water contract | $2,910,914 |
County-Other, Harrison | Drill new well | $2,451,846 |
West Gregg WSC | Drill new well | $2,325,906 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
El Paso | Integrated water management strategy - import from Diablo Farms | $245,506,000 |
El Paso | Integrated water management strategy - import from Dell Valley | $214,113,000 |
Irrigation, El Paso | Water district delivery systems | $147,635,869 |
El Paso | Integrated water management strategy - conjunctive use with additional surface water | $140,238,000 |
Horizon Regional MUD | Additional wells and desalination plant expansions | $34,344,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
San Angelo | Develop Hickory Aquifer supplies | $173,307,000 |
Midland | Develop Cenozoic Aquifer supplies | $168,507,000 |
Colorado River MWD | Desalination | $131,603,990 |
Colorado River MWD | Reuse | $128,748,000 |
Colorado River MWD | Develop Cenozoic Aquifer supplies | $76,268,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Brazos River Authority | Groundwater/ surface water conjunctive use (Lake Granger Augmentation) | $643,928,000 |
Abilene | Cedar Ridge Reservoir | $285,214,000 |
Round Rock | Groundwater/ surface water conjunctive use (Lake Granger Augmentation) | $229,822,000 |
Leander | Regional surface waters supply to Williamson County from Lake Travis | $169,147,000 |
Brazos River Authority | Stonewall, Kent, and Garza chloride control project | $163,226,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Houston | City of Houston treatment expansion | $2,045,672,161 |
San Jacinto River Authority | SJRA Water Resources Assessment Plan | $900,000,000 |
West Harris County Regional Water Authority | WHCRWA internal distribution | $552,472,000 |
North Harris County Regional Water Authority | NHCRWA internal 2020 distribution | $345,292,192 |
Houston | Wastewater reuse for industry | $332,051,761 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Angelina & Neches River Authority | New source - Lake Columbia | $231,865,000 |
Tyler | Lake Palestine infrastructure | $79,389,250 |
Lufkin | Lake Kurth Regional System | $56,488,600 |
Lufkin | Angelina County Regional Project | $53,164,000 |
Lower Neches Valley Authority | Purchase water from provider (2) | $39,168,200 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Bandera | Surface water acquisition, treatment and aquifer storage and recovery | $19,654,900 |
County-Other, Kerr | Surface water acquisition, treatment and aquifer storage and recovery | $17,005,100 |
County-Other, Kerr | Surface water storage | $7,050,000 |
Kerrville | Increased water treatment and aquifer storage and recovery capacity | $6,650,000 |
County-Other, Kerr | Conservation: brush management | $3,937,790 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Austin | City of Austin direct reuse (municipal and manufacturing) | $302,250,510 |
Austin | City of Austin direct reuse (steam-electric) | $302,250,510 |
Lower Colorado River Authority | Aquifer storage and recovery | $168,711,000 |
Elgin | New LCRA contracts | $17,556,000 |
County-Other, Hays | Development of saline zone of Edwards-Balcones Fault Zone Aquifer | $16,693,491 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
San Antonio Water System | Firm-up- run-of-river with off-channel reservoir - LCRA/SAWS project | $1,986,684,000 |
San Antonio Water System | Seawater desalination | $1,293,827,000 |
Guadalupe Blanco River Authority | GBRA mid basin (surface water) | $546,941,000 |
San Antonio Water System | Edwards Aquifer recharge - Type 2 projects | $527,643,000 |
Guadalupe Blanco River Authority | GBRA Simsboro project (overdraft) | $330,782,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Laredo | Laredo low water weir | $294,400,000 |
Laredo | Acquisition of water rights through purchase | $208,068,312 |
Brownsville | Seawater desalination | $165,021,993 |
Irrigation, Hidalgo | On-farm water conservation | $115,491,102 |
Brownsville | Brownsville weir and reservoir | $98,411,077 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Corpus Christi | Off-channel reservoir near Lake Corpus Christi | $300,577,000 |
Corpus Christi | Construction of Lavaca River off-channel reservoir diversion project (Region N component) | $138,753,917 |
Corpus Christi | Garwood Pipeline | $112,798,000 |
San Patricio MWD | Gulf Coast Aquifer Supplies (regional) | $59,245,000 |
Corpus Christi | O.N. Stevens Water Treatment Plant improvements | $31,324,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Lubbock | Lake Alan Henry Pipeline for the City of Lubbock | $294,329,000 |
Lubbock | Lubbock North Fork diversion operation (A) | $153,040,000 |
Lubbock | Post Reservoir - Delivered to Lake Alan Henry Pipeline | $110,307,000 |
Lubbock | Lubbock Jim Bertram Lake 7 | $68,288,400 |
Canadian River Municipal Water Authority | CRMWA Region O local groundwater development | $56,574,000 |
Sponsor | Strategy | Capital Cost |
---|---|---|
Irrigation, Jackson | Conjunctive use of groundwater (temporary overdraft) - Jackson County | $0 |
Irrigation, Wharton | Conjunctive use of groundwater (temporary overdraft) - Wharton County | $0 |
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Comments (6)
Darrell J. Gonzales via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Oh! I loved when they put in the end Jackson and Wharton county irrigation need projects. Cost: $0-- It's the least they can do but everything else across the State of Texas in the future is 53 billion dollars--total! We are really barely scratching the surface of the water woes of the State of Texas and we need to find new and creative ways developing revenue for our State. Early on before the 83rd legislative session began, there was much talk about legalizing gambling Casinos here in Texas. In-fact, there were reports and studies done on how much money the State of Texas was losing to out of State gambling casinos in our nearby neighboring States: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Louisiana. The reports said to be exact we are losing 2-3 billion dollars each year that belongs to Texas! http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-04-08/gambling-lone-star-state#.UgO-ONK-p-U
If conservatives are ever going to believe Democrats on how to resolve this issue, the time is now! Though they should have passed the legislation this past spring! Compromise is the name of the game and Religious leaders cannot stop the mere fact that the water woes of Texas are NOT going anywhere! 53 BILLION DOLLARS IN STATEWIDE WATER PROJECTS ACROSS THE STATE OF TEXAS and Farmers and Ranchers can't ill afford to wait any longer on the Philosophy of "Lower Taxes." A county in West Texas wants water projects that has a 36 cents taxing rate or even worse 23 cents and they (people) want their water projects funded that total over 1.8 billion dollars in area regions? Wake up people?
Russell Slocum
They should automatically ignore every one that says "drill new well" or "import from." To me this is kind of like ignoring the football field sized hole that you dug in the backyard to look for gold, and not finding anything. In order to fulfill our need for gold, we dig a bigger hole next to it, and then another hole, and another, and another, until eventually there's no more land to dig. Sustainability depends on maintaining the hole we have already dug, not digging 500 more holes.
if you look at china you can see the logical fallacy in how we approach this. In china, there are a lot of people. But, there is not a lot of water. Despite the obviously disproportionate amount of water, the price remains at pennies on the dollar. Every year the disproportion grows substantially, but the price does not. I see a similar pattern here. I'm sure that my suggestion is unpopular, but simply increasing the cost of water two-fold would cure many problems. First, there's more taxes coming in to fund more sustainability projects. Most importantly, a 200% increase would make people think about conservation while still being affordable.
Linda Fernandez
Good visualization, but it would be helpful to see the actual water savings/new water associated with these measures.
In Region M, for example, the costs for seawater desal are estimated at $165 million and on-farm water conservation projects at $115.5 million. The other important info is that seawater desal would produce 7,902 acre-feet of water per year (AF/yr) by 2060, while on-farm conservation projects would produce 219,228 AF/yr. Obviously, the value is considerably more with the ag improvements.
Overall, Region M's 14 municipal water management strategies would cost almost $1.9 billion and produce 381,594 AF of water by 2060.
In contrast, the two irrigation strategies (on-farm conservation PLUS irrigation conveyance system conservation) would cost just over $325 million and produce 438,011 AF.
Clearly, it makes sense to consider innovative approaches to resolving water needs in Texas that break down the wall between municipal water and irrigation water. These and other facts discussed at http://texasagwaterforum.org/
D W
not sure why you would compare Texas to China, since we dont exactly have the same weather patterns.and then there is the fact that only small parts of China are not 3rd world country living standards. unless you think we have the same exact conditions its comparing apples. and cats. unless we plan to start exporting Texans to other states (or maybe other countries, China maybe?) and we are going to stop needing electricity (since water is big part of electricity generating) we will need a lot more water. cause the water we have today is what we planned for back in the 1950s. can the state is some what bigger than it was then. so we can either arrange for more water. or we can shrink. and we seem to have a lot more droughts. and drought it was killed many empires in the past
Jay Goode via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We don't need any more gambling and all the costs that go along with it.if people were truly responsible ... maybe but they are not.
A Lerma Stickelbault via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The estimates are overestimated......those engineers and those types want a job forever....they are an extension of government employment.