Texans face billions in water works bills as drought saps economy

By David Mildenberg and Whitney McFerron
13 October 2011 Allan Ritter pushed a bill to make 25 million Texans pay an extra $3.25 a year to help provide water for decades. Then, with a record drought devastating farms and ranches, the state representative’s party leaders waded in. “We couldn’t get the votes,” said the Republican from Nederland who heads the Natural Resources Committee in the House of Representatives. Lawmakers who run the chamber sought to oblige Governor Rick Perry’s pledge not to boost taxes instead. “You couldn’t get the votes in the House to raise revenue for anything last session,” Ritter said. Since 1996, when lawmakers mandated statewide water planning, Texans haven’t agreed on how to pay for needed work. This year, as crops withered and cattle went to early slaughter, pressure rose for action to protect the economy and sustain a surging population. Perry called on citizens to pray for rain six months after the drought began. On Nov. 8, voters will decide on letting the state carry as much as $6 billion in water-related debt. Perry, who appoints most members of boards overseeing state agencies and local water authorities, didn’t include developing resources among his priorities for the past legislative session. He entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in August, after lawmakers had adjourned for the year. The governor supports the November ballot measure, said Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman. She referred questions to the Environmental Quality Commission, where Commissioner Carlos Rubinstein said he can’t comment on bond issues. The driest 12-month period in Texas since records began in 1895 may lead the Lower Colorado River Authority, which oversees water for 1.1 million people in cities such as Austin, to ask the commission to stop irrigation supplies for area farms. Texas A&M University has said the drought caused a record $5.2 billion in agricultural losses for the state’s $1.2 trillion economy. Water managers in the district may cut some irrigation flows as soon as March. In 2009, agriculture accounted for 3.1 trillion gallons of consumption statewide, more than twice the amount used by cities, according to the Texas Water Development Board. About $142 billion is needed for new reservoirs, treatment plants and pipelines to meet projected demand or risk annual job losses forecast to reach 1.1 million by 2060, if drought conditions affected the entire state, the water board has said. Income losses are estimated to climb to $116 billion a year and population growth to slow by 1.4 million. […] In Kemp, about 50 miles southeast of Dallas, 16 major breaks in city water lines occurred in July and August, as pipes as much as 60 or 70 years old shifted in parched soil. The leaks drained the community’s two storage towers, forcing an Aug. 7 shutdown that left 1,150 residents to rely on bottled drinking water for more than 24 hours during repairs. Kemp needs to spend as much as $50 million to update pipes, valves, tanks and a treatment plant, Mayor Donald Kile said in an interview. The city hasn’t budgeted for repairs and is seeking state grants to cover the most urgent work. “We just don’t have the revenue income that the bigger cities do” to pay for new pipes and equipment, Kile said. “If we have another summer like we did this summer, we could be right back up against the wall again.” […]

Texans Face Billions in Water Works Bills as Drought Saps Perry’s Economy via The Oil Drum