State needs to address water loss mitigation, water reuse

GUEST COMMENTARY

Senate Bill (SB) 7 is one of the big “water bills” the Texas Legislature will take up this session. It was scheduled to be heard in the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs on March 24.

SB 7 is the enabling legislation for Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 66, which would provide a $1 billion dedicated revenue stream for Texas water each year. If SJR 66 passes, Texans will be able to vote to approve it this November.

SJR 66 requires 80% of the Texas Water Fund to be transferred to the New Water Supply for Texas Fund. SB 7 does not list water loss mitigation efforts ( fixing leaky water supply infrastructure) or wastewater recycling (water reuse) strategies — both of which would provide a significant amount of water for Texans — as supply strategies on which the New Water Supply for Texas Fund can be spent.

These two strategies would go a long way toward securing our water future, are highly cost-effective, would provide a firm supply and can be implemented much more quickly than other supply strategies, such as building new reservoirs or piping water around the state.

Under SJR 66 and SB 7, the required transfer of 80% of the Texas Water Fund would mean that these very effective strategies are locked out of $800 million of the funds, potentially leaving on the table hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water that can be supplied relatively quickly and cheaply.

Texas cannot afford to leave these strategies out of its major efforts to tackle our water crisis.

According to Texas Living Waters, Texas utilities lose at least 572,000 acrefeet of water each year due to aging infrastructure — more than the total annual needs of Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, Laredo, and Lubbock combined.

Surface reservoirs in Texas lose around 7.4 million acre-feet of water combined each year to evaporation, according to the Texas Water Development Board. Annual reservoir evaporative losses can often exceed the state’s total annual municipal water use.

The 2022 Texas State Water Plan recommends that roughly 15% of the state’s water supply come from some form of water reuse. To date, only about 4% of the state’s water supply is recycled water.

Why not provide more funding for projects such as El Paso’s Advanced Water Purification Facility?

Texas may be facing a severe shortage of water by 2030. Water loss mitigation, wastewater recycling and aquifer storage and recovery are projects that can provide and protect relatively large amounts of water supply in the shortterm. These are strategies that should be made a priority now.

We are grateful to Sen. Charles Perry for bringing water funding bills to the legislature, but to ensure their maximum potential, SB 7 should be amended to add water loss mitigation efforts, like fixing our leaky water pipes, and non-potable and potable water reuse strategies to the New Water Supply Fund for Texas.

Contact your state representatives and senators today to ask them to support an investment in Texas water that includes water loss mitigation and water recycling.

Annalisa Pease is the executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance.