State water plan approved, fight against Marvin Nichols continues

The Texas Water Development Board formally approved the 2022 State Water Plan at their board meeting in Austin on July 7, and the approved plan does include the construction of Marvin Nichols Reservoir in the Sulphur River basin.

The 2022 State Water Plan is basically a compilation of the 16 regional water plans and so the construction of Marvin Nichols Reservoir is included in the plan because it is a part of the Region C water plan. Region C is the area of North Texas surrounding Dallas and its multitude of suburbs, with portions of the water supply that would be allocated from the lake’s construction going as far west as Johnson County, and the bulk of the projected need tapped for Collin County, just north of Dallas.

Region C has long wanted the construction of the 66,000 acre lake in their water plan and in the state water plan. The efforts of those in Region D (Northeast Texas) have thwarted those efforts in the past by a variety of means, including a lawsuit, but those efforts were unsuccessful this year. The Region D recommendations for the 2022 state water plan included provisions noting that the construction of Marvin Nichols was unnecessary.

Those here in Region D who have battled the proposed reservoir for decades state that the fight is far from over.

Region D chairman Jim Thompson states, “It is just a plan, and it is in there presently, but I believe once they see how flawed it is we will be able to stop it like we have in the past.”

Janice Bezanson, Senior Policy Director of the Texas Conservation Alliance, said following Wednesday’s meeting, “This meeting was a formality. TWDB used to write the whole Plan, but since the Legislature established the regional water planning process, the real work of water planning is done in the Regional Water Plans. The State Plan includes a summary of the state picture and cites the regional plans for specifics. The State Water Plan is revised every five years. It would be difficult to get a project approved that wasn’t in the Plan, but having a project in the Plan is no guarantee that it will be built. The actual approval comes through the permits that must be granted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (state water rights permit) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (called the “four-oh-four” permit because it is authorized in Section 404 of the Clean Water Act). Today’s vote doesn’t change anything we are doing to oppose Marvin Nichols.”