Summary: "Water planners in Parker and Palo Pinto counties took a preliminary step Wednesday toward a partnership that will speak up louder than either can alone. Parker County is within the 16-county Region C Water Planning Group, which is dominated by Dallas/Fort Worth. Palo Pinto County is in Region G, 37 counties where Georgetown, Waco, Temple and Hillsboro have the loudest political voices. [TX House Representative Glenn] Rogers recommended that he file a 'shell bill' now and fill in the details later."
Latest Update: Tuesday, 27 December, 2022 Two New Articles.
Tags: #FortWorthWater
[Editorial Note: Although Willow Park has managed it's current and immediate future water needs with our purchase of Fort Worth water and well rehabilitation, the water needs of all of Parker County and surrounding counties will have a profound effect on Willow Park.]
Two new articles below.
• Rainwater harvesting grant program under way, Up to 100% funding is available, The Community News, 23 December 2022
• Parker, Palo Pinto counties seek water partnership, Weatherford Democrat, 26 December 2022
Parker, Palo Pinto counties seek water partnership, Weatherford Democrat, 26 December 2022, Excerpts.
MINERAL WELLS — Water planners in Parker and Palo Pinto counties took a preliminary step Wednesday toward a partnership that will speak up louder than either can alone.
“I don’t think we have any choice,” Palo Pinto County Judge Shane Long said, nearly two hours into a discussion attended by some 60 leaders of water utility companies from the two counties in the Crazy Water Hotel. “I don’t see any reason Palo Pinto Commissioners Court and Parker County Commissioners Court can’t work together.”
In addition to the elected leadership from Palo Pinto and western Parker counties, water providers from Mineral Wells, Santo, Millsap, Brock, Peaster and Palo Pinto were joined by state agencies officials and experts in the discussion.
“This is not going to be easy — it never is when you’re dealing with water,” Texas Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio said, recommending Long and Parker County Judge Pat Deen take the lead in appointing members to the two-county partnership.
Larson is a member of the Natural Resources Committee in the Texas House of Representatives and is acknowledged statewide as a seasoned water planning expert. He attended at the behest of Rep. Glenn Rogers, R-Graford, who represents the two counties as well as Stephens County immediately west.
No official action was taken during the informal discussion, but agreement was coalescing around potentially expanding the board that governs Lake Palo Pinto to accommodate voices from both counties.
That will require legislation in Austin, where the 88th Legislative Session begins on Jan. 10. And with the 40-day session looming, c
Those would include how many sit on the two-county panel, how they are selected and for how long, and even what to name the body.
“It’s a historic name for it. I don’t have a problem with it,” Deen said of the Palo Pinto County Municipal Water District No. 1, which owns its namesake lake (though Mineral Wells operates it for municipal, industrial and recreational purposes).
Parker County Commissioner Larry Walden countered the district’s one-county name could hinder grant applications if the awarding agencies do not see both counties in the name.
“At some point, it needs to describe the region,” he said, later adding the new panel will not make sense unless all the governments and water districts have equal representation. “As we move forward, I want to make sure that nobody gets bypassed.”
The two counties are separated by more than a county line.
Parker County is within the 16-county Region C Water Planning Group, which is dominated by Dallas/Fort Worth. Palo Pinto County is in Region G, 37 counties where Georgetown, Waco, Temple and Hillsboro have the loudest political voices.
The state also has legislatively created regions for flood mitigation, with Palo Pinto County and far west Parker County in one and the northeast half of Parker in another.
Howard Huffman, manager of the lake district, used the theme of the meeting that emerged from a multipoint slide show the group studied.
“We are in the spaces between spaces,” he said.
Rogers later asked if anyone opposed expanding the lake board, as opposed to creating a new entity. No one spoke or raised a hand.
“We can do that this legislative session,” the state representative said.
Larson, who will enter his seventh session in January, urged the planners to act now for future generations.
“If you guys are serious, there’s water out there,” he said. “You’ve got to get aggressive, and you’ve got to pay for it.”
The meeting started with a kind of backdrop description of the two counties’ mutual need. Though Parker County seat Weatherford pulls water from lakes to its east, much of its rural areas are tapped into Lake Palo Pinto.
Along with Parker County Special Utility District, the lake also supplies water to six other water wholesalers and Mineral Wells for a total of 35,000 people.
That city and the lake board have secured all but two large parcels for a new lake, Turkey Peak Reservoir, immediately south of Lake Palo Pinto, but they comprise roughly the southern one-third of the lake’s footprint.
Mineral Wells City Manager Dean Sullivan told the group the Texas Water Development Board recently changed its policy and requires 100 percent land acquisition before considering a low-interest loan. Formerly the standard was “substantial” land acquisition, Sullivan said.
“That has moved our timeline about three years (off),” he said. “And that’s alarming.”
Meanwhile, both of the two counties are in the crosshairs of investors selling lots for housing developments built on the assumption adequate water supply will be there.
Jason Knobloch, deputy director of the Texas Rural Water Association, noted that 1,000 to 1,200 people move to Texas every year.
“The problem is, they are not bringing water,” he told the group. “You can’t mine all the aquifers and feel good about it, because your grandkids won’t have water.”
• Rainwater harvesting grant program under way, Up to 100% funding is available, The Community News, 23 December 2022, Excerpts
The Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District has announced a new annual rainwater harvesting grant program for Montague, Wise, Parker, and Hood Counties.
UTGCD encourages organizations within the district area to consider the addition of rainwater harvesting systems to structures and organizational buildings.
Maintained systems significantly reduce groundwater usage, utility costs, erosion, and weathering of vegetative surfaces. The State of Texas publicly supports rainwater harvesting efforts while recognizing exemplary systems each year via the Texas Water Development Board.
• To save water in Texas, these nonprofits are paying farmers to leave it in reservoirs, The Texas Tribune, 26 September 2022 Excerpt:
As the state is losing water, some conservation organizations, mostly nonprofits, and agencies are stepping up to help conserve water by using a new strategy — paying farmers to leave the water in the ground and consume more sustainably... Getting reimbursed for using less, or in some cases no water, could be beneficial to farmers with failed crops. The current drought is costing Texas agriculture billions of dollars in losses.
According to Kapnick, 64% of the country was in drought conditions this summer, and much of that was concentrated in Texas. At the peak of the summer, 95% of the state was experiencing drought, compared with 59% of the state now.
The Ogallala is heavily relied upon in the High Plains region, which produces 30% of the nation’s crops and livestock, in times of drought. However, the region has also had more decline in the aquifer’s water levels than anywhere else in its span through seven other states, according to a 2019 report from NOAA.
Excerpt:
As the state is losing water, some conservation organizations, mostly nonprofits, and agencies are stepping up to help conserve water by using a new strategy — paying farmers to leave the water in the ground and consume more sustainably... Getting reimbursed for using less, or in some cases no water, could be beneficial to farmers with failed crops. The current drought is costing Texas agriculture billions of dollars in losses.
According to Kapnick, 64% of the country was in drought conditions this summer, and much of that was concentrated in Texas. At the peak of the summer, 95% of the state was experiencing drought, compared with 59% of the state now.
The Ogallala is heavily relied upon in the High Plains region, which produces 30% of the nation’s crops and livestock, in times of drought. However, the region has also had more decline in the aquifer’s water levels than anywhere else in its span through seven other states, according to a 2019 report from NOAA.
• It’s time to find water solutions, by Richard Henderson, The Community News, 07 September 2022, Excerpts
A recent Dallas Morning News article titled “Water Woes — a Deepening Crisis” by Annette Nivens, special contributor, addresses the water problems facing citizens of Parker County. It is one of a series of articles from a year-long project by the Denton Record-Chronicle and the University of North Texas graduate journalism students regarding the water problems of the DFW area. I recommend a full reading of the article.
Nivens had some memorable, sobering quotes. One such quote was attributed to Ron Kaiser, professor of water law and policy at Texas A&M University, about overuse of water on lawns and pools in drought: “That’s due to ‘Ignorance and stupidity’ in not planning for the future. … Ignorance comes from not knowing any better. Stupidity comes from knowing we are running low on water but abusing it anyway.”
Jeff Bennett, another water well driller, said “ There is an overall culture of rampant water use in the name of extravagance during a time of drought.”
Toby Watts said “There are just so many straws we can put in the ground before it all dries up.”
I still think the ultimate solution is to tie on to the Tarrant Water District surface water as have Aledo, Willow Park, and Hudson Oaks, who are no longer dependent on wells. These cities have the necessary powers to force conservation measure at the water meters for the good of all.
You may not like government to regulate the use of water, nor the expense, but what is the alternative?
Jack Watts, the patriarch of the Watts Family has the final answer:
“We are going to run out of water someday. It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of time.”
• Water Woes: A deepening crisis, The Dallas Morning News, Search for scarce water strains communities, Excerpts
The ground is so parched, it cracks and pops as Toby Watts maneuvers a mud-encrusted, 2-ton water-drilling rig across a scraggly field of rock and grass along FM1187 in western Tarrant County.
Jeff Bennett has dug wells in Parker, Hood and Tarrant counties for 30 years. He worries that today’s “do whatever it takes” attitude could leave future generations high and dry.
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