{"id":39652,"date":"2015-02-06T08:29:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T14:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=39652"},"modified":"2015-02-06T08:29:13","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T14:29:13","slug":"where-are-the-water-projects-that-are-asking-for-5-5-billion-in-state-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/02\/06\/where-are-the-water-projects-that-are-asking-for-5-5-billion-in-state-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"Where are the Water Projects that Are Asking For $5.5 Billion in State Loans?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Counties<\/a>

Mose Buchele<\/p>

Counties that contain at least one project applying for state funds are highlighted in blue.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) had planned to distribute about $800 million in low interest loans for Texas water projects this year. By the time the deadline for project applications closed, total requests reached $5.5 billion, many of them from urban and suburban parts of the state.<\/p>\n

The new system of financing was set up by state lawmakers and approved by voters in 2013. Under that system, billions of dollars were\u00a0moved from the Texas Rainy Day Fund <\/a>and put into a separate fund for water. The Water Development Board<\/a> plans to distribute about $800 million dollars in loans every year for the next ten year.<\/p>\n

The 48 projects eligible for loans this year range from modest to mighty. The City of Marfa asked for $700,000 to build a single well, but the North Texas Municipal Water District requested $791 million for the under-construction, 16,500 acre Lower Bois d\u2019Arc reservoir.<\/p>\n

Applications from the greater Houston metropolitan area comprise one third of the total requests received by the Water Development Board. \u00a0The sixteen projects around Harris County alone add up to $3 billion in loan requests. Projects in the Dallas Fort Work area made up about ten percent of all requests.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, local government and water district in the Texas Panhandle didn\u2019t submit any applications, even though parts of that region remain in exceptional drought.<\/p>\n

C.E. Williams, chairman of the Panhandle Regional Planning Group and general manager of the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, says that\u2019s because the City of Amarillo and the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority have received \u201csignificant amounts of money\u201d from the Development Board in recent years. \u201cThat really got them up to date. Really they had no additional projects that needed to be funded at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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