By JAMES DRAPER |
Bring up ‘water supply’ in the wrong corner of Texas, and a person might get wrung out and hung out to dry.
It’s a tense issue where there are deficits and just as fraught in places of plenty: the tug-of-war between communities that ‘have’ and their ever-growing ‘have not’ neighbors near and far will get worse in the years and decades ahead without practical solutions.
It’s why Texas Senator Bryan Hughes and his fellow legislators are pushing Senate Bill 7 for voters’ approval come November. Success means dedicating $20 billion to the problem during the next 20 years, split between new water sourcing and plugging leaks by revitalizing aging infrastructure.
Failure continues the countdown toward a statewide water crisis by 2050.
Fortunately, the third-term East Texas Republican says, he’s not hearing much pushback on the proposal.
“We think this just makes sense,” Hughes said Monday.