Plano South | December 2024

BY COLBY FARR

Put in perspective

One more thing

Texas' water infrastructure funding gap

The NTMWD’s board of directors adopted a new wholesale water rate for customer cities during a Nov. 21 meeting. It’s the rst time the wholesale rate has been changed for customer cities since 1970. The NTMWD plans to phase in a new customer contract template that will take eect in August 2028. Under the new wholesale rate, customer cities could pay as much as 10 cents more than member cities. Jenna Covington, executive director and general manager for NTMWD, said the wholesale rate for customer cities had been a topic of discussion for decades. Ocials have spent time over the last few years discussing it with customer cities before implementing the change. “I am grateful for the spirit of cooperation and regionalism that has been on display as we undertook that process,” she said.

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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