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ESTIMATED CAPITAL COSTS OF MAJOR WATER-RELATED PROJECTS IN TEXAS,
1997-2050 (in billions of dollars)
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Source: Texas Water Development Board,
Water for Texas 2002 (January 2002), Figure 9-1.
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Texas currently spends about $1 billion a year on new water treatment, sewage, and drainage facilities.* Between 2000 and 2050, based in part upon recommendations made by the Regional Planning Groups, the TWDB estimates Texas will need $108.6
billion in funds for wastewater treatment and water systems, reservoirs, conveyance, pipelines, and flood control. Most of the cost is associated with meeting the
provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act to provide clean, potable water to communities and to treat wastewater discharges under the Clean Water Act
through the construction of wastewater treatment plants .* Less than 17 percent of the total estimated costs -- some $17.9 billion -- are related to new water
supply and conveyance systems recommended by the Regional Planning Groups. This total includes over $3 billion needed to develop new reservoirs.
The total is a significant increase in estimated costs compared to the 1997 Water Plan, when it was
estimated that some $65 billion would be needed by 2050 *. The huge increase in estimated costs has led to criticism that some of the Regional Planning Groups
advocated large-scale water supply projects rather than look at cheaper alternatives like more aggressive conservation
strategies (For more information on this criticism, see the Texas Water Matters Website (www.texaswatermatters.org) run by statewide environmental organizations).
The effort to ensure an adequate supply to meet future demand can involve varying water development strategies.
These strategies can be divided roughly into two categories:
- supply-side alternatives, which rely on increasing the water supply, and
- demand-side alternatives, which focus on reducing demand.
Supply-side alternatives include new reservoirs, expanded water re-use, and interbasin transfers. Demand-side
strategies include drought management, water transfers from one category of use to another-such as irrigation to municipal-and conservation. In the past, new reservoirs and other water supply projects were built to meet expected
water needs. In 1913 Texas had only 8 major reservoirs, with a capacity of about 359,000 acre-feet, the largest of
which was Lake Medina. By 1930 that figure had risen to 32, with more than a million acre-feet of capacity. The
damming of rivers and creation of new reservoirs continued, and by 1980 there were 168 reservoirs. Today, there are
211 major reservoirs, with a capacity to store more than 41.5 million acre-feet of water and covering nearly 1.7 million acres.* The construction of reservoirs in Texas has replaced over 600,000 acres of forested wetlands with deep-water
aquatic systems.
Past state water plans favored supply-side solutions. The 1969 Texas Water Plan advocated importing water from the
Mississippi River to Northeast Texas and moving the water through a series of canals and aqueducts to the Rio Grande
Valley and West Texas. Texas voters rejected a constitutional amendment to provide initial funding for the project,
which would have required 67 dams. A similar plan to import water and build 27 new reservoirs also was voted down in 1974.* In 1981, Texas Speaker of the House Billy Clayton proposed a Water Trust Fund, which would have set aside
one-half of the state's budget surplus for future water projects. "Proposition Four" was defeated by voters. The 1984
water plan also called for the construction of 44 new reservoirs, although the TWDB sought no bonding authority from the legislature for these water projects.
While the TWDB and the Regional Planning Groups have continued to recommend construction of some new reservoirs
to meet long-term water needs, other supply and demand options also are being considered. The 2002 water plan calls
for conservation methods to reduce demand by 2 million acre-feet, more than 10 percent of total demand; expanding
existing local supplies by the use of pipelines, reuse, and return flows; water marketing; and development of eight new surface water reservoirs.* The construction of the reservoirs would cause the loss of an tens of thousands of acres of wetlands.* In addition to the reservoirs, the plan also includes projects to divert return flows into off-channel
reservoirs, desalination of brackish groundwater, projects to reallocate currently permitted reservoirs, and 53 major
conveyance projects, including 10 that would move water from one regional planning area to another.* In addition to
the recommendations made by the Planning Groups, the TWDB has recommended that more attention be placed on
moving "uncommitted" water from North-East Texas to the Houston Area, to recharging the Ogallala Aquifer through
modification of Playa Recharge Lakes and to additional desalination in the El Paso area*.
The proposal to build more reservoirs is controversial. Opponents claim it is both environmentally destructive and not
the most efficient way to meet demand. They argue, for example, that the construction of reservoirs harms wildlife habitat and destroys wetlands.* Reservoir construction also penalizes downstream users because run-of-the-river
flows are reduced, impacting water use. Also, wastewater discharges must meet more stringent permit standards
when there is less water in the rivers to dilute the discharge. While reservoir proponents recognize the need to mitigate
environmental damage, they believe that some reservoirs are needed to meet the demands of a growing population.
Both sides agree, however, that other water development strategies are needed, given the scarcity of resources and
the increasing regulations to protect the environment. In essence, water resource planners are calling for a shift from
water development of new supplies to water management of existing supplies.
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