Changing Texas Water Rules

Call the 83rd session in Austin the Water Session.  House Bill 4 was big and got the most press - the bill allocates $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund toward a new State Water Implementation Fund.  Other important water bills included:

• HB 857 by Rep. Eddie Lucip requires water utilities to conduct annual water loss audits.
• HB 1461 by Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock requires customer notification of audit results.
• HB 3605 by Rep. Lon Burnam requires utilities to use a portion of state financial assistance funds to repair municipal water main leaks (the Texas estimate is 20 billion gallons annually).
• SB 198 by Sen. Kirk Watson makes it illegal for homeowners associations to prohibit members from utilizing xeriscaping and drought-resistant landscaping (changing plants by 2020 could save 14 billion gallons).