On Tuesday members of the community and leaders in the “H2O4TEXAS” Statewide tour met at the Texas Tech International Cultural Center to discuss the state’s new comprehensive water plan.
Lubbock was “H2O4TEXAS'” sixth stop along the tour. Texas state senator Charles Perry and Representative Jim Keffer have been traveling to sixteen regions across the state, from the southern most tip to the Panhandle. Lubbock, and the 21 counties surrounding it, has been designated as “Region O.”
At the local level, the tour is geared at bringing together community members and state leaders to discuss the challenges unique to each region.
“Our region is different than Dallas, Dallas is different than Houston, El Paso looks a lot different than Amarillo so we got to have this input from regions and have people from Austin come out to be willing to hear those to be effective at what we do,” said Senator Perry.
Also invited to speak was the City of Lubbock’s Director of Water Utilities and Region O Chairman for the water planning group, Aubrey Spear.
“Many of the people here today [Tuesday] are from the agriculture community and they want to be able to pass on that legacy and that heritage of farming in this area, and so it is very important to them.”
Bech Bruun, chairman for the Texas Water Development Board, says because representatives from Austin are being able to personally visit each region, this year’s plan will be the most comprehensive plan ever produced by the agency with a total of 5,500 unique water project management strategies being planned for across the state. Bruun and his team say they want each town and city in each region to know they play an important role in the statewide water plan as a whole.
“Because regardless of whether it’s times of plenty or times of drought folks are moving to Texas, cities like Lubbock are growing quickly and we need to look ahead.”
A new, state water plan is developed every five years. Leaders say with each plan they try to look 50 years into the future when developing water conservation strategies.
