AUSTIN, Texas — The Senate Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee is set to hear testimony Monday on a bill that would improve water infrastructure in Texas.
Senate Bill 7, authored by State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), has been listed as one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority bills this legislative session. It would establish the Texas Water Fund Advisory Committee and the Office of Water Supply Conveyance Coordination, and would create the New Water Supply for Texas Fund to finance desalination, aquifer storage and inter-regional water transportation projects.
Patrick announced SB 7 in January, to increase investments in water infrastructure. Gov. Greg Abbott has also named water infrastructure funding as an emergency item this session.
The bill also introduces best practices for water conveyance infrastructure and encourages the use of existing utility easements to reduce the need for eminent domain, as well as mandates biennial reports on water supply project progress and financial performance.
The Texas Water Fund Advisory Committee and the Office of Water Supply Conveyance Coordination would serve as oversight committees to help improve connectivity between the state and regional level.
The bill follows a 2022 study by the Texas Water Development Board that pointed to concerns over a possible future water shortage in Texas. That report estimated that more than 50 million people would be living in Texas by 2070, and water shortages alone could lead to 1.4 million jobs and $92 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being lost. The 2022 state water plan also projected the state’s municipal demands will start surpassing current water supplies in 2030.
There have also been concerns about construction of big projects, including AI data centers, putting even more strain on the state’s water supply. A report from Environment Texas details how one data center can consume up to 5 million gallons a day by cooling off hundreds or thousands of computers that quickly heat up.
In comparison, the average water use per person in Austin is 131 gallons a day, or about twice the volume of a bathtub, according to Austin Water.
In the 88th Texas Legislature, lawmakers invested $1 billion in water projects and infrastructure.