“One thing that I think that we have here in Bexar County, over a lot of other delegations, is our water knowledge,” SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente said. “We’ve had so many water fights within San Antonio.'
The Texas House lost an influential water champion when Lyle Larson retired last year, but a state surplus and a new water caucus could mean progress on some of the state's most pressing water issues.With its rich and complicated water history, San Antonio could play a substantial role in how state water challenges are addressed this legislative session, even without former State Rep.
Lyle Larson , long considered one of the state’s most influential water champions. That’s the view of SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente, himself a former legislator who focused on water issues, and who now serves as chairman of thePuente said the caucus has been decades in the making; it was something he pushed for while he was in office from 1993 through 2008. The 44-member caucus, which includes San Antonio Reps. Steve Allison and Liz Campos, met for the first time Wednesday. Neither responded to requests for comment about the caucus. The goal of caucus is to educate members about the critical water issues facing the state, with an eye toward using some of the $188 billion available for the next budget to help secure Texas’ water future. “One thing that I think that we have here in Bexar County, over a lot of other delegations, is our water knowledge,” Puente said. “We’ve had so many water fights within San Antonio. Anybody who knows San Antonio knows that water has always been a big, big issue that we have fought over. We have had true legislative knock-down-drag-out fights over it and now a lot of that is done.” Texas Water Foundation CEO Sarah Schlessinger said that because state lawmakers have a surplus of funds to delegate this session, it was especially important to get the caucus launched. “We have a lot of competing interests fighting for some of that surplus funding and so [the caucus] is really a consolidated effort there,” she said. “There’s also a need to invest in the next generation of water champions at the legislature.” Schlessinger pointed to Larson’s exit as a prime example; the House lost “an institutional legacy” with his departure, she said. Larson, who served on the San Antonio City Council and Bexar County Commissioners Court before joining the legislature in 2010, most recently served as the chair of the House’s Natural Resources Committee. During his time in office, Larson was critical to passing many critical water bills, which, among other accomplishments, created a more robust process for planning and implementing flood projects, advance desalination, aquifer storage and recovery and brackish groundwater development. He told the San Antonio Report Wednesday he is glad to see a House Water Caucus finally come together. He traced its inception to 1997’s Senate Bill 1, which established the creation of regional Texas water resource planning and statewide drought emergency measures.Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again. That bill, championed by former Sen. J.E. “Buster” Brown , who left office in 2002, and today sits on the board of the Texas Water Foundation, included an objective that will sound familiar: raising awareness around water issues, Larson said. “We just need to have more people advocating on water issues, because you have such a diversity in what the water challenges are, depending on what part of the state you are looking at,” Larson said. “There’s just a lot of pressure points and we just need more people to become aware of those.” It is absolutely critical that Texas representatives understand water issues — such as water security, flood mitigation, infrastructure and drought relief — as a priority, said Rep. Tracy O. King , who will serve as the caucus chairman. King, along with state Sens. Charles Perry and Drew Springer and Rep. Cody Harris , spoke at the Texas Water Development Board’s 2023 Water for Texas conference “Connecting H2Opportunities” Wednesday morning prior to the inaugural caucus meeting. “A lot of folks in the water community have been urging us … to bring more awareness in the legislature to water issues,” King said during the panel. “This is the time to do this if we’re going to do it.”
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