Perry: Texas is 10 to 11 million acre feet short of the water supply it needs

I normally don’t have long opening comments, but I am going to give a little bit more (time to that) than I normally do, today.

And this (commentary) will refer to several of the parts of the hearings that will go out through the day, but on the front end.

The 89th (legislative session) has the opportunity to do something that we haven’t done in the way of supply development. 

For those that have paid attention to me, if there’s anything I am, I try to be consistent. 

The State of Texas, based on my analysis of our existing water plan, is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 11 million acre feet short of goals. A fair assessment of that plan would say that we’re at least ten years, if not 20 years behind in meeting those goals. We cannot conserve an 11 million acre feet shortfall. It (conservation) is part of the process, and we will encourage that to the best of our abilities. 

The options for developing new supply are pretty clear. They’re actually outlined with minimum exception on how to meet that. Part of the reason the state water plan isn’t where it needs to be is we’ve always relied for the most part… the state has done some really good things on the actual funding of those projects. In that, we have created a patchwork of duplicative and inefficient taking of water supplies that are depleting, creating a lot of consternation, litigation, and ultimately not meeting the supply needs in Texas.

If I am successful with y’alls help, the people have chose to be here today, and hopefully all the people that are listening and the communities out in the state of Texas from the individual well owners that have seen their wells deplete, from the industry groups are now questioning whether or not there’ll be enough supply to continue to grow, thrive and actually create new industry segments; we will be successful.

The 89th will have an opportunity to present a water grid, none other than like an electric grid, none other than like our roads and bridges. The funding for that will look, I hope, if we’re successful, a lot like how we did our roads and bridges. The reason we just approved $148 billion-plus ten year contract for roads is someone a few years back, named Senator Nichols, and the legislature at the time, saw the wisdom in front loading long term decades in the making expensive projects with the coordination that comes with that. 

So the 89th will be the state’s opportunity – with some of the wealth that we’ve experienced – to turn the conversation on whether we will have enough supply to where we will have plenty of supply. And I’m looking forward to working with each and every one. I will tell you on the front end, and it’s my nature, for those that have concerns and want to be part of a solution, I will find every opportunity I can to meet with you and take those considerations. For those that are already dug in and probably say, it can’t happen, never will happen and didn’t happen in the past,  I won’t try to make much time for that. The risks are too big, the stakes are too high, and it will be a water plan that works for all industry.

We won’t tell sugar mills in the (Rio Grande) Valley, cotton gins or dairyman on the Plains that there are any less important than the high tech industry jobs that we all seek and are proud to have coming to Texas. We’ll actually create an economic enterprise where we do keep food security in our agricultural sectors, where we do have variety and diversity of diet because we did our water supplies right. At the same time, we’re going to provide job opportunities for those groups of kiddos we call gamers now that’ll be running those chip factories and the robots within them.

That’s where we’re at. We can continue to stick our head in the sand and point to a plan as well designed and well meaning as it is, that will fall woefully short of where we need to be. 

The difference in a road, a bridge or a grid, is when they fail, it’s immediate. You see it. There’s a public outcry and if properly so we address it. And we are working, I think, in the right direction, to fix the grid. I’m proud of Legislature’s narratives and messages, that we’ve stepped up to (the challenge) with the funding associated with it. 

The problem with water supply… I’ve coined the term, it’s death 5000 drips. And when you realize the patient is beginning to become terminal, it’s 30 years from that point forward to fix it. 

Texas needs and has the ability to fix this. We have about 50 million acre feet per year of developer resources. It’s actually more than that, but that’s probably realistically what we could expect to do. And we only need about 10 to 11 million acre feet to set the water supply up to probably centuries plus. 

So, the neat thing is, we recognize the issue, we have the supply opportunity to fix it, and we have the resources to front load it for future cost recovery when water delivery begins. So we’re not socializing anything. We’re just making Texas the bank, saving the interest costs and the inflationary gain that we have to pay if we wait any longer. 

So, that’s my goal for the 89th that should not be a shock for anybody that’s been paying attention. But I have clarity like I’ve never had. I could start naming names of people that have helped me get here the last two years from the technical aspect. I will not do that to them, because I know everyone in this room would start calling. And these are people that have volunteered a lot of time, energy and resource to bring this concept to fruition. 

It will change. We will find better practices along the way. We’re not going to continue to pull from things that we know to be certainly depleting, and call it water supply. We’re going to develop more supply. That’s the only legitimate answer that anybody can point to. 

Editor’s Note: The above commentary was provided by state Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock. Perry made the commentary at the beginning of a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, held at the state Capitol on Sept. 3, 2024. Perry chairs the committee. He is also co-chair of the Senate Water Implementation Fund for Texas advisory committee and the Texas Infrastructure Resiliency Fund advisory committee. 

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