Richardson Edition | December 2024

BY COLBY FARR

Put in perspective

One more thing

Texas' water infrastructure funding gap

The NTMWD has consensus agreement within its service area to change the wholesale rate for customer cities for the rst time since 1970, pending nal approvals. The NTMWD plans to phase in a new customer contract template that would take eect in August 2028. Under the new wholesale rate, customer cities could pay as much as 10 cents more than member cities. Richardson City Manager Don Magner said that residents would not see an immediate impact on their water bills but, if approved, the new structure could lead to benets down the line. “We’re taking a long-term view,” Magner said. “Richardson residents and the residents of all the member cities would benet, because more revenue will be coming in from the customer cities.”

Key:

Total nancial investment needed

Projected state funding

$154B

$152B

$150B $200B $100B $50B $0

$147B

$144B

$127B

$64B

$41.5B

$39.5B

$35.5B

$31.3B

$19.7B

2020-29

2030-39

2040-49

2050-59

2060-69

2070-79

SOURCE: TEXAS 2036COMMUNITY IMPACT

said. Second, water and wastewater infrastructure across the state is using and becoming a liability for the communities it serves, he said. “The issue is that even though we have these nancial assistance programs that have been approved by the legislature and approved by the state, they’re going to fall short in terms of what we ultimately need to spend in the long term on these water infrastructure challenges,” Mazur said.

NTMWD’s eorts to prepare for future popula- tion can be seen across the state. Demand across Texas is projected to outpace existing supply by 2030, according to the Texas State Water Plan. Texas faces two key challenges regarding water, said Jeremy Mazur, natural resources and infra- structure policy director for Texas 2036. First, the state is projected to face a water sup- ply decit of up to 6.9 million acre-feet by 2070, he

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