The Texas Water Development Board on Thursday voted to adopt its first version of the 2027 State Water Plan, noting a “more robust version” is expected to be adopted later this year.
The approved documents will be sent to the governor, lieutenant governor and state lawmakers.
The plan, updated every five years, provides insight on how the state would need to prepare for conditions during a severe, prolonged drought when demands are high and supplies are at their lowest.
The price of implementing the thousands of strategies and projects needed to prevent a crisis over the next 50 years has soared to $174 billion, more than double the $80 billion estimate from a few years ago, a symptom of rising costs and growing needs.
The plan includes 3,000 projects and 6,700 strategies, such as recycled water and conservation, which officials say would provide 2.7 million acre-feet per year in additional water supplies in 2030.
TWDB officials said the agency is using a two-phase approach during this planning cycle to meet State Water Implementation Fund for Texas program deadlines while giving itself additional time to develop a “more robust and informative document than otherwise possible.”
The now-adopted plan, approved months ahead of the statutory January 2027 deadline, was referred to as an “initial abridged document.”
Later this year, the board is intending to adopt a “Phase II” amendment that will replace the initial water plan. The latter document should include additional analysis and value-added content consistent with prior state water plans.
Similar to the first phase, the public will have another opportunity to provide comment and attend a hearing before TWDB votes on whether to adopt the updated version.
The statewide water plan is a combination of the board’s 16 regional planning group’s findings and proposed projects. All North Texas counties, including Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant, are in Region C.
The board approved Region C’s water plan in January and published a draft of the statewide plan in April before accepting public comments through late May.
More than 1,000 comments were made on the plan — the most in planning history — by 525 people or groups, according to the board.
Frequently raised concerns were tied to “emerging industrial water demands,” particularly data centers, and related issues of cost of allocation and associated financial burden for water supply infrastructure, rural impacts and protection of groundwater.
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.