TWDB May Do Much Good but Does It Always Tell the Truth?

The Perry appointed Texas Water Development Board may do much good with the dispersal of SWIFT (State Water Implementation Fund for Texas) funds, but does it always tell the truth?

Daniel Borunda reported in a story in today's El Paso Times that TWDB Chariman, Carlos Rubenstein, said at a meeting at El Paso's TecH20 center yesterday that "state funding will pump millions into water projects in the region the chairman of the Texas Water Development Board said Wednesday during a meeting in El Paso."

Borunda also wrote that "John Balliew, the president and chief executive officer for El Paso Water Utilities, said EPWU will seek SWIFT support for an expansion of the Jonathan W. Rogers Water Treatment Plant, an advance purification system to turn waste water into high-quality drinking water and systems to capture "tail water" or unused water."

All of the above is good. Read the Times story. Judy Ackerman emailed me these notes about the high points of yesterday's meeting:

"About 50 attendees including Jesus “Chuy” Reyes, Edward Drusina (IBWC Commissioner), Pat Gordon (Rio Grande Compact Commissioner).

"Senator Rodriguez introduced the only speaker:  Carlos Rubinstein, Chairman of the TX Water Development Board.  

"The main point was how to apply for SWIFT $s, who can and when.

"In his opening remarks, Rubinstein mentioned the Rockefeller Resilience award given to El Paso - kudos.   He said “No issue is more important to TX than water.”  The State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) will “ensure water for 50 years.”

"By legislation, they must use At Least 20% of the funds on Conservation and Reuse (which includes lining of irrigation canals and municipal water line losses).  At Least 10% of funds must go to Rural communities and agriculture.

They are working on the issue of assigning capital costs to conservation.  (what is the dollar value of water lost to seepage in open irrigation ditches, etc.)

"Sierra Club is in the conversation with TWDB on conservation issues.

"Sen Rodriguez’s question:  what about Fracking and water use? 

Answer:  Statewide, fracking uses only 1% of TX water.  Expect frackers to use more brackish water.  Frackers may receive “incentives” to reuse their water.

"TWDB hosts meeting for innovative ideas on water and they are always packed."

The emphasis on fracking is mine. If Rubenstein and the rest of the TWDB believe that fracking only uses 1% of Texas water, he and they are either not telling the truth or they are misinformed, deceived or having pipe dreams. Because of the incestuous relationship that Texas Republican government has with big oil, I unfortunately believe that they are not telling the truth and are attempting to deceive us.

Read my two posts about the math of fracking water consumption HERE and HERE. 

Coincidentally to yesterday's TWDB meeting, Governor Cuomo of New York announced that his state was banning fracking because of health and environmental concerns. Also yesterday, Politico ran this report about the Texas energy revolt especially in Denton, Texas which banned fracking in a vote last November. 

I'm sure that Senator Rodriguez's question to Rubenstein was inspired by elpasonaturally's exposure of plans by Torchlight Energy Resources to frack on the Diablo Plateau (part of the same ecosystem as the Otero Mesa) mere miles beyond Hueco Tanks and the city limits of El Paso.

Keep in mind that El Paso Water Utilities may sooner than later be importing water from that plateau in Hudspeth County. We have to ask how Torchlight or any other fracker will pollute that groundwater. The TPWD should be asking the same question and, rather than enabling the fracking industries destruction of the scarce commodity of water, it should be fighting it. Unfortunately, big oil elects governors of Texas along with Railroad Commissioners, Land Commissioners and governors appoint the TWDB members.

Be sure to read a November press release by TWDB announcing the adoption of the final rules for the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT). Be sure to click on the links on the bottom of the release and read the information.

BTW a group of El Pasoans involved in the Texas Water Captains initiative met on Wednesday at the Columban Mission Center.

Texas Water Captains

Not long ago I was contacted by the Rev. Sam Brannon from the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy. I forget how he got my name but he thought that I would be someone interested in their Water Captains Program and help it get going here in El Paso. He was correct.

In brief, the program is a means to promote water conservation around Texas and to involve local people directly in the decision-making of regional planning groups and indirectly in the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). On that Board are a whopping three members from Brownsville, Austin and Beaumont. (None from West Texas.) They were all appointed by outgoing (finally) Gov. Rick Perry which should tell you a lot. The membership on the Region E (which includes El Paso) Planning Group is a bit deeper. A list of that group's voting members can be found HERE. Non-voting members are HERE.

The Texas Water Development Board has extensive responsibilities and power. They collect the data from regional water plans and formulate the Texas State Water Plan every 5 years. With the passage of Proposition 2 - the State Water Implementation Fund, the Board's influence over Texas water policy dramatically increased. Proposition 2 formed SWIFT by taking $2 Billion from the State's rainy day fund (how ironic) to be loaned out for water projects. I voted against this proposition because I saw it trying to conserve water the wrong way - more big holes and concrete dams around the Lone Star State - money in the pockets of huge corporate contractors for the most part. With Perry's three member board administering the fund, you know that the voices of just local folk are going to be muted which was the case when the TWDB had a work session in El Paso in May. That's where the Water Captains program comes in.

What is ingenious about the program is that it harnesses the power of local faith-based communities to disseminate information about water conservation and to find regional "armies" of folk who can help shape regional water planning. Nine of us met with Sam yesterday at the Columban Mission Center (MAP) to learn more about the program. We plan to meet there again on December 16th at Noon. If you are interested, please contact me at diegotolbert@gmail.com. Our goal is to get ready for a visit to the next Regional Water Planning Group meeting to be held in Alpine, Texas on Thursday, Februrary 12, 2015 at 1:30 PM. 

One doesn't have to be a member of a faith-based community to get involved. At our meeting yesterday I knew that there was one person who was not such a member but nevertheless has an extensive network of "just folk" whose voices should be heard. However, working through faith groups can be very powerful. I have often wondered how those of us interested in the environment and conservation in El Paso can best get our message to El Pasoans as a whole. Water Captains may be an excellent template.

See, I told you that the TWDB wasn't listening to Lois Balin. Here's the press release from the Dallas Country Club look-a-likes:

Texas Water Development Board approves $200,000 in an agricultural water conservation grant to the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1

For immediate release.  Contact: Kimberly Leggett at 512-463-5129

AUSTIN – (May 29, 2014) – The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) today approved an agricultural water conservation grant in the amount of $200,000 to the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 (El Paso County). The grant will assist with agricultural irrigation system improvements to the Riverside Canal.

The El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 will use the funds to line the canal with fiber-reinforced concrete to reduce water loss.

The TWDB is the state agency charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional planning and preparing the State Water Plan for the development of the state’s water resources. The TWDB administers cost-effective financial programs for the construction of water supply, wastewater treatment, flood control, and agricultural water conservation projects.

I learned also that the lifelong dream of WID#1 Board President, Johnny Stubbs, is the concrete lining of the Riverside Canal. Some people want to cure AIDs. Some want to save rain forests. Some want to save a less than one mile strip of a natural ecosystem along the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park in El Paso, Texas. Johnny? Johnny dreams of concrete.

Riverside Canal at the Rio Bosque Should be Preserved not Lined with Concrete

Click to enlarge image. Canal is red line at top of park boundary.

I attended the meeting of the Texas Water Development Board at the TecH2O Center this morning. The reports were basically nodding-off boring with the exception of Malynda Cappella's briefing on Zero Discharge Desalination. ZDD's not exactly a party pleaser but the presentation made it so. I didn't stay for the report on the Texas v. New Mexico litigation. I did hear Chuy Reyes, the General Manager of Water Improvement District #1. You can always count on Chuy to say some things that make you shake your head and wonder if God at some point ran out of neurons.

Mr. Reyes trumpeted the cornucopia of El Paso farmers: pecans, Pima cotton, corn, wheat, chili, onions and alfalfa. Then he said that "some of us" are working to get dairy farms back to El Paso. Mind you that his remarks were made in the context of water conservation and what the water district was doing for water conservation. Pecans, cotton, dairy farms - these are all pretty heavy consumers of water. When the Texas State Wildlife Biologist, Lois Balin, addressed the board following Chuy, she began with a suggestion that less water hungry crops could replace our current guzzlers. Her words fell on the deaf ears of what could pass for the Dallas Country Club - a board of 4 men, 1 woman and no Hispanics or blacks. Not one asked Ms. Balin a follow-up question about crops or the Rio Bosque.

Reyes went on to talk about the need to concrete all canals. There is some virtue in concreting canals - but there is never any virtue in destroying wildlife habitats and precious ecosystems in the process. Balin's principal point was the need to preserve the less than one-mile stretch of canal which borders the Rio Bosque. It is earthen - river alluvian. Ms. Balin said that, on her most recent visit to the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, she counted 25 species of birds using that canal, observed soil invertebrates and, of course, the rich plant life. Concrete some of the canal beyond the borders of the wetlands sure, maybe. But don't concrete line that portion that makes up the precious ecosystem of the Rio Bosque. People who see only the dollar and cents of concrete lining canals can at least understand the dollars to be gained by ecotourism. Again, a similar area in New Mexico brings in $18 Million a year in tourism.

It would, however, be nice if these concrete loving folks would understand one other very simple concept. If I lose a gall bladder and a kidney, I can limp along. If other vital organs start shutting down, I'm in trouble. An organism needs the complexity of organs, glands, skin, blood and sinew working together to be healthy, live and keep on living well for a length of time. Now think of the living world as one big organism. It's made up of vertebrates such as ourselves, invertebrates, things flying, things crawling, microscopic things making processes work in soil and in gut. If you start shutting things down in this organism, life becomes less healthy and less lengthy. 

A less than one mile stretch of canal with a rich ecosystem should be preserved. 

Texas Water Development Board in El Paso May 29

TWDB Board to hold work session in El Paso on May 29

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) will hold a work session in El Paso to provide information on the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) and an opportunity for public input on the SWIFT.

In addition, the Board will hear updates on the Texas v. New Mexico litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the Rio Grande Compact. The Board will also consider approving $2.1 million in grants for agricultural water conservation projects.

The meeting will be held in El Paso at the TecH2O Center, 10751 Montana Avenue, Rio Grande Auditorium, on May 29, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.

Other topics on the agenda include a presentation on desalination activities in the El Paso area and an overview of TWDB's financial assistance program, the Economically Distressed Areas Program.

The public and interested stakeholders are encouraged to attend and provide public comment.

Visit the Texas Water Development Board online.

YES on 8 and NO on 2

Knock yourself out if you want to read the entire 2012 Draft State Water Plan from the Texas Water Development Board. Here's what one water conservationist wrote with some hyperbole:

"I just skimmed through all 200+ pages of the 2012 TWDB Water Plan and there is not one mention of rainwater harvesting as part of the overall plan to have enough water to meet the State's needs. They're recommending up to two dozen new dam projects at a gazillion dollars each. What if that same money provided catchment on every governmental building in the State? Provided low-cost tanks to homeowners? Created a whole new employment sector of people trained to install such systems? How about requiring all air-conditioned buildings to reuse their A/C condensate for flushing toilets? I could go on and on, but I see no cutting edge thinking in this proposed plan, just the same old stuff: build reservoirs, move water from point A to B, desalinate, etc."

In an email response, water resources expert Mike Mecke says that the 2012 TWDB Water Plan "goes to the old engineer's and planner's philosophy that 'a project can't be any good unless it costs millions and is very complex!'" (He might as well be talking about El Paso with all of our huge ponds and no apparent knowledge of green infrastructure/low impact development and rain water harvesting.)

Now enter Proposition 2 which "would amend the Texas Constitution to authorize the Texas Water Development Board to issue additional general obligation bonds on a continuing basis for one or more accounts of the Texas Water Development Fund II, with the restriction that the total amount of bonds outstanding at any time does not exceed $6 billion." Wow!

The TWDB calls for too many reservoirs in their 2012 Plan. Proposition 2 gives the TWDB almost unlimited power to grant the building of these expensive projects. These projects have nothing to do with water conservation. They have everything to do with a few contractors making lots of money.

The Independent Texans PAC doesn't like Proposition 2 and neither do some anti-tax groups.

Proposition 2 is bad news. Vote NO. But then there is Proposition 8, the water stewardship amendment.

Mecke sees in Proposition 8 "no drawbacks and no lost tax base and a management alternative to properly manage lands for watershed and riparian purposes." He goes on to say:

"Conservation is always the 'cheapest new water'. Land Stewardship efforts, especially in some regions, the best 'win-win' for city users and rural folks. Concerted rainwater harvesting programs for all towns (and rural homes) would be very beneficial - require it on all new construction, at least for outside uses or flushing toilets in public buildings, etc. Stormwater catchments could help water public areas and reduce street flooding and stream pollution too."

Simply put: YES on 8. NO on 2. (And keep your eye on those Perry rascals on the TWDB. Perry's no conservative and no friend of tax payers. He's for enriching his cronies.)