Texas water experts, lawmakers look ahead to 2025 legislative session: The good, the bad and the discouraged

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – During the annual summit held by the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts in August, policy professionals, lawyers, lawmakers and water experts highlighted a dire need for massive action in the coming legislative session to support the state’s rising water needs amid its fast-depleting supply.

However, none of them expressed confidence that the Lone Star State will be able to rise to the occasion, even in the face of what legislators framed as an immediate and existential threat.

Rather, state senators and representatives as well as directors with the Texas Water Conservation Association and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality joined others in worrying that the Texas Legislature will fail to provide the funding and framework to fill the state’s growing water deficit, settle issues regarding property development and water rights, adjust and improve the most recent State Water Plan or fully contend with the negative impacts legislation passed in the last session may have had on communities’ ability to manage water.

Recent water developments and the 88th Texas Legislature

In the most recent legislative session, Texas began to implement the Texas Water Fund, which authorized $1 billion to fund water infrastructure upgrades, water supply projects and a statewide water public awareness program. Since then, the Texas Water Development Board has collected surveys and applications from communities and agencies to allocate funding for those projects, including at least $250 million to the New Water Supply for Texas Fund for new water supply strategies. Further, Texas is set to receive federal funding to contribute to drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure .

Previously, Texas also published its 2022 State Water Plan , saw an overview from the Texas Comptroller’s Office of Texas’s present and future water needs , and has made strides to expand state floodplain mapping and related flood management projects .

However, the 2022 State Water Plan involved a combined list of 2,440 recommended water management strategy projects from the state’s regional water plans to be developed and put online in the next 50 years. The total statewide capital cost for the recommended projects was estimated to be $80 billion in 2021 – or 80 times the $1 billion that Texas allocated with the creation of the Texas Water Fund.

Even still, Senator Charles Perry (TX-28) remarked during the annual water summit that even if the state plan was sufficiently funded in its current state, it would result in a water shortfall of around 2.4 million acre-feet. With the lack of funding, Perry brought the expected shortfall up to 9 million acre-feet of water, or an “honest” 10-12 million acre-feet shortfall within the next decade with the state’s current trajectory on dealing with water supply issues.

“We have woefully underestimated Texas’ successes,” with the 2022 State Water Plan, said Perry, who joined numerous other policymakers and water experts in calling the Texas Water Fund “a drop in the bucket – no pun intended.”

Perry also criticized the state plan for assuming a 30% decrease in irrigated crop production, particularly around the Texas Panhandle and High Plains region – which relies nearly exclusively on groundwater for agricultural, industrial and municipal water supply needs – which he phrased as “unconscionable and irresponsible.”

However, as noted at the summit and in previous reports on MyHighPlains.com, producing irrigated crops such as the regional staples of cotton, corn, grains and sorghum has already become more difficult in recent years due to harsh weather and a draining Ogallala Aquifer system. Without a shift in water supply strategies and agricultural practices, producing those crops and multiple other avenues of agricultural production in the region will become impossible within the next 50 years , let alone likely to see a decrease.

Perry said that he believes Texas could continue producing its irrigated crops and meet its water needs by developing desalination projects and importing surface water, but the state will need to adjust its plan and commit to long-term investments and develop a continuity of funding to address its water issues.

“We’ve got a good plan,” said Perry, “but it needs to be updated for the reality we face in Texas in 2025.”

Senator Nathan Johnson (TX-16) similarly called the most recent legislative session “grossly insufficient” on the state’s water issues, with Representative Stan Kitzman (TX-85) agreeing that a looming amount of work remains to be done.

That work could be made more difficult in part due to policy changes the previous legislature made for water rights and property development, according to Attorney Emily Rogers. In 2023, lawmakers passed SB 2038 allowing landowners to remove land from a city’s Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction zone.

Previously, according to Rogers, ETJs have been considered zones outside a city’s official boundaries in which it can still have power, meaning it can be subject to city law as well as zoning and subdivision development. Cities have previously been able to use ETJs to expand water and sewer service in anticipation for new developments and more easily have registered Certificates of Convenience and Necessity, which can be used to fold new developments into city utility services or the services of another utility provider.

Rogers explained that recent legislation has cut protections on CCNs and removed ETJ authority from cities, which have generally had more of a “toolbox” to regulate new developments and help implement regional water plans than counties. Because of the most recent 2023 legislation, Rogers said that Texas cities now essentially lack the ability to plan for expanded water and sewer services for future growth.

Unintended consequences of the legislation, Rogers said, could impact water service costs, regional and state water planning, unregulated drilling and well-building for already-scarce groundwater supplies, a lack of quality control for stormwater and drainage systems for new and growing communities, and a worsening of general standards for subdivisions. While checking in on the impact of SB 2038 was listed among the interim charges for legislators, Rogers noted that the check-in was set to be more focused on private property than its effects on water issues.

Looking toward the 2025 Texas Legislature

Sarah Kirkle, director of policy and legislative affairs for the TWCA, said that while interim charges were set for lawmakers to continue to workshop some state water issues ahead of the 89th legislative session, the general political climate in the Texas capitol could harm efforts to address pressing water issues.

The 88th Legislature was in session more than any other in Texas history, noted Kirkle, and fraught with battles such as those over school voucher legislation and property taxes, as well as the fallout from the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton .

Headed into the next session, lawmakers will have to contend with exhaustion, the aftermath of heated primary races , continued contentious issues and other internal divisions.

“… So, the vibe is not great,” Kirkle remarked.

Kirkle said that she anticipates more leadership challenges and division in the next legislative session, as well as legislators “looking more like Congress.”

“I don’t mean that as a compliment…” She said, “They don’t get much done.”

Further, Kirkle noted that “we are losing a significant number of people who understand the technical, complex nature of water,” headed into the next session, with the departures of those such as representatives Tracy King (TX-80), Four Price (TX-87), Ed Thompson (TX-29), Kyle Kacal (TX-12) and Senator Drew Springer (TX-30).

Framed as “The Great Water Loss,” Kirkle highlighted that half of the House Natural Resources Committee will be leaving, and taking their combined seniority on and understanding of water issues – specifically groundwater – in Texas with them. Educating incoming legislators on those issues, as a result, will be a heavy lift for those in the water sector.

Meanwhile, Kirkle detailed the interim charges for the Texas Senate and Texas House as related to water, including:

• Senate interim charges:
  • Water system reliability; and
  • Monitoring past legislation.
• House interim charges:
  • Monitoring past legislation;
  • Reliability of clean water access;
  • Water reuse; and
  • Groundwater infrastructure.

While Kirkle noted that the “water system reliability,” charge “can mean almost anything,” Perry said the charge was intentionally broad.

Some interim hearings have already been held regarding water issues, including one in May that Perry said included discussions on produced water and raising questions about desalination as a possible avenue for water supplies. Another set of meetings was set for Sept. 3 for the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs, the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas Advisory Committee, and the Texas Infrastructure Resiliency Fund Advisory Committee. Further, Perry and Kirkle both mentioned looking toward other September meetings for the House interim charges and regional flood planning updates.

The broad reach of the interim charges had Perry somewhat hopeful that it would allow legislators to make progress on many of the state’s vast array of water issues heading into the next session, with other lawmakers and water sector experts similarly highlighting the need to keep attention focused on the Lone Star State’s water and its rippling impact.

Texas’ looming water issues

Lawmakers and other water sector experts and employees at the groundwater summit all posed that some of the most immediate issues for Texas to address in the coming year will be addressing water funding and policy clarifications.

TCEQ Executive Director Kelly Keel, for one, expressed in her update that the commission is in “dire” need of more people and funding, with increased expectations for the TCEQ and subsequent demands for its support bringing its resource needs to “unprecedented” levels. The TCEQ aims to implement recently passed legislation and enhance permit compliance and public engagement, according to Keel, and otherwise also needs funding for basic administrative staff support, cybersecurity and modernization among other items. The funding, she said, will be necessary to ensure the agency can grow its staff and resiliency amid the ongoing and developing challenges in Texas’ water sector.

Johnson brought up the need for new work and funding for groundwater usage and monitoring efforts, as well as for the legislature to actively acknowledge and work with water and its overlap with Texas’ electricity and energy sectors.

“More information is always better so we can make better decisions,” said Johnson. Further, he and Perry both reiterated the common ground between water and electricity in Texas, given that many solutions proposed to fill Texas’ high-volume energy demands in the near future – such as hydrogen energy and developing renewables – require water. On the flip side, water supply strategies like desalination require hefty amounts of energy.

Johnson and Perry also called for Texas to critically consider its growth, particularly industrially, in regard to water and energy supplies. Johnson suggested, for example, that Texas evaluate the cost-benefit of inviting new industries into the state when their production would heavily increase demand for water and energy.

Texas should consider, Johnson said, “Do we have enough water to put a new AI data center there?” among other questions to pursue “thoughtful” growth for the state.

Kitzman further spoke on the state’s need to consider many possible strategies for developing a sustainable water supply, and emphasized the need to meet demand while keeping utilities affordable.

Kitzman’s point, shared by the other lawmakers, was to reiterate Texas’ need to balance urban growth and agricultural needs, industrial development and a water supply that both exists and is affordable for those in the state.

The legislators, Rogers and others like Real Estate and Water Rights Consultant Charles Porter also mentioned that Texas will need to hammer out its positions on balancing personal property rights with the water needs of the state, from subdivision development and irrigation rights to whether or not landowners should be able to sell their water to neighboring water districts.

Addressing the state’s water supply issues will take statewide, top-down action as well as regional and local planning and collaboration, according to lawmakers and the water experts at the summit. They only hope that in the next year, Texas lawmakers and agencies will be able to work with intention for the sake of the state’s immediate and long-term future.

In the meantime, they also encouraged water sector experts such as those in Groundwater Conservation Districts around the state, as well as regular Texas residents to work to communicate and emphasize to state agencies and the incoming legislature the importance of addressing water issues, and to keep involved in conversations at a local level where possible.

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