Texas will need to invest $174 billion over the next 50 years to keep up with water demand, according to a draft 2027 state water plan approved last week, the Austin American-Statesman reported. That is more than twice the projected cost in the previous state water plan published in 2022.
The draft report, released by the Texas Water Development Board, says the increased costs are due to a number of factors: inflation in construction costs, more frequent droughts, and a decline in existing water supplies as the state’s aquifers become depleted.
The state last year earmarked spending $20 billion over the next two decades for water infrastructure and supply projects — an amount that falls far short of what will be needed, according to some experts.
“This figure validates concerns that $1 billion a year is not going to be sufficient to meet the infrastructure needs to ensure our water supply,” said Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, a construction trade coalition for water projects.
The state water plan is created with input from 16 regional planning groups that identify future water needs in their regions and how to meet them. The draft plan is open for public comment and can be accessed here: https://tinyurl.com/3ktz5fpm.
Talarico raises record $27 million; Cornyn leads Paxton in fundraising
State Rep. James Talarico raised a record $27 million in this first quarter of this year, the largest-ever sum for any Senate candidate in any state in the first quarter of an election year, The Texas Tribune reported.
“Winning in Texas will require unprecedented resources,” said Seth Krasne, Talarico’s campaign manager. “This grassroots fundraising haul puts our movement in a strong position to spread our message in some of the most expensive media markets in the country. But we can’t take our foot off of the gas.”
Talarico has raised more than $40 million since entering the race last September from more th 540,000 individual contributors.
On the Republican side, where incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is heading to a May 26 runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Cornyn outraised his opponent by fourfold, pulling in $9 million in the first quarter. Paxton raised $2.2 million
“The Cornyn campaign continues performing at a high level, building off the over performance in the March 3rd primary to announcing a massive fundraising haul in the first quarter of 2026,” Cornyn campaign manager Andy Hemming said.
Judge orders Camp Mystic to preserve cabins where girls died
An Austin state district judge ordered Camp Mystic’s owners not to alter, repair or demolish cabins that housed campers and counselors who died in last year’s July 4 flood along the Guadalupe River, southwest of Kerrville. The flood killed 25 girls, two counselors and one of the owners of the camp.
The camp’s owners are being sued by the parents of 8-year-old Cile Steward, the only victim whose body has not been recovered. Other parents of children who died in the floods also have lawsuits pending.
“This finding is supported by facts tending to show that defendants owed a duty of care to Cile Steward and other minor campers, which they breached by operating Camp Mystic in a high-risk zone without adequate flood protections,” Judge Guerra Gamble wrote.
The injunction remains in place until the lawsuit is resolved or the court rules otherwise. The judge set a trial date of May 3, 2027.
SNAP rule change forces recipients to read food labels
Changes in what can be purchased under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are now in place in Texas, and consumers are spending more time examining the ingredients label, the Texas Standard reported.
SNAP benefits can no longer be used to buy candy or sweetened beverages, under Texas Senate Bill 379, passed last year. That includes drinks with more than five grams of added sugar or any amount of artificial sweetener.
The ban does not include baking sugar or sweet cereals, however. The guidelines do not provide an itemized list, so retailers must interpret them and apply them to the food items they sell.
“You use Google a lot to get the internet’s interpretation. You look at the law and how it’s written,” said John Robertson of Austin’s Fresh Plus grocery stores.
Data center owners grilled by legislators
Texas lawmakers grilled data center developers, energy companies and grid officials recently on the impact of the state’s data center boom, the Houston Chronicle reported. Grid officials say they are proposing regulations that will ensure Texas can handle data centers without raising electricity costs for consumers or risking power blackouts.
Officials from various Texas energy companies said data centers could help upgrade the state’s grid infrastructure.
“If we have an opportunity to have new customers coming to the state pay for that, we’ll have done some really good work,” said Brian Lloyd, with Dallas-based Oncor, the Texas utility with by far the most data centers seeking to connect to its system.
Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission, told lawmakers his agency is working with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator, on rules to encourage data centers to bring their own power generation to help prevent price spikes.
“I honestly don’t think on the generation side you’re going to see a large increase in costs at this point, because we have so many renewables and batteries on the system,” Gleeson said.
Amount of state in drought increases again
Near the end of March, 89% of the state was in drought, according to hydrologist Dr. Mark Wentzel with the Texas Water Development Board. That is the largest extent of drought in nearly four years, Wentzel wrote. In addition to continued dry conditions, average March temperatures were 66.8 Fahrenheit, beating the previous record by more than one-and-a-half degrees.
Wentzel said there is some reason for optimism with a wet, cooler start to April and a forecast of drought contraction in much of the state, except for the Panhandle and West Texas by early summer.
“Also note that we’ve set a new monthly record every year since 2021. In 2021, we set the record for the hottest December. In 2022, it was the hottest July, hottest September in 2023, October in 2024, and November in 2025,” he wrote.
Now we can add March 2026 to that list.Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com.
