NOW PLAYING
AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Texas water officials pleaded with members of the Texas House Natural Resources committee on Tuesday to provide more funding for water supply projects as project costs skyrocket.
Despite the Texas Legislature allocating increased funding to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) in 2013, and again last year, water experts are concerned about a lack of funding available for local governments to undertake needed water infrastructure projects.
Funding Gaps
In 2013, the Legislature passed House Bill 4, which created the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT). This fund had an initial investment of $2 billion and provided communities with low-interest financing to address state water plan projects. Examples of these projects include building new pipelines and conservation efforts.
The plan was to use that initial investment as the base of an endowment to build a sustainable fund — funneling $27 billion towards water infrastructure projects for 50 years. However, Temple McKinnon, water supply planning director for TWDB, says their drafted 2027 five-year State Water Plan far exceeds current funding.
“It’s an ongoing challenge. We do our absolute best to essentially squeeze as much capacity as we can out of our financial assistance programs, but there is growing demand as evidenced very clearly by the kind of new $174 billion price tag for the State Water Plan,” McKinnon told lawmakers Tuesday.
McKinnon clarified that increased costs are attributed to a wide range of factors, including inflationary pressure, labor costs, and materials.
Ongoing problems
Last year, the Texas legislature passed a constitutional amendment to dedicate $1 billion a year towards water infrastructure from 2027 through 2047. The voters of Texas confirmed their support with a constitutional amendment referendum. However, the first funds won’t likely be granted until at least 2028.
The Texas Legislature attempted to address some of these short-term funding gaps in House Bill 500. This bill appropriated over $1 billion for TWDB Water supply and infrastructure grants to give to local communities.
Sarah Kirkall, with the Texas Water Association, says even this updated funding is not sufficient.
“We’d hoped that the one-time funding in HB 500 would help bridge this gap, but these grant-only dollars, while very helpful to specific infrastructure projects and small grant needs, provided no additional funding to the actual financial assistance programs like SWIFT or the new water supply fund, or the flood infrastructure fund.”
For the first time in the program’s 13-year history, SWIFT could not meet it’s demand. While it granted $2 billion in various amounts and forms to local infrastructure projects — it didn’t cover half of the estimated $4.2-$4.3 billion cost of the approved projects.
It’s not just SWIFT. Last year, TWDB’s flood infrastructure fund made “$312 million available to offer as grants or 0% interest financing, but the TWDB received $2 billion of requested needs, making the program six times oversubscribed,” TWDB’s Marvin Cole-Chaney said.
Those who are unable to receive funding from the TWDB have to look towards outside funding opportunities to fulfill their needs.
Representative Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, acknowledged the need for funds, but needed clarification on how much the Legislature should give.
“We’re facing a reality that we need to take another examination of SWIFT and potentially recapitalize it,” Ashby said Tuesday. “What is the number? I want you to dip your toe in this water.”
Kirkall highlighted the complexity of water supply projects, but gave an estimate. “It could be upwards of a billion dollars a year.”
The impact of data centers
In the span of two years, data centers surveyed by TWDB have continued to increase.
“Between survey collection years 2023 and 2025, the number of individual survey data centers increased from 22 to 341,” McKinnon told lawmakers.
Fears of increased water usage from these centers have also heightened. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin worry that data centers could potentially account for 9% of Texas’s water use by 2040.
Some say the focus on data centers is also a concern of national security.
“This is an important debate for safety, environmental concerns of our community. It is also a very important debate for national security and the competition between the United States of America and the Chinese Communist Party to see who will dominate the technologies of the 21st century,” said Michael Lucci, founder of State Armor.
Lucci told lawmakers that in the race between the US and China, data centers aid in powering AI and emerging technologies that could impact the United States’ military advantage.
“My view of this would be this stuff is really important for national security, so we want to be able to do it in the right way, and you need data to do that.”
Add as preferred source on Google TagsCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments: Link copiedMore Energy & Environment News
See All
House House Republican: Let Reflecting Pool ‘go’ and ‘create an ecosystem’ by Max Rego 1 hour ago House / 1 hour ago 
