U.S. Water News Online
SAN ANTONIO -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has proposed that a $208 million water desalination plant be built somewhere on the Texas coast as a way to increase supply to satisfy the state's future water demands.
The proposal was part of a water-security program, announced by the governor during a visit to San Antonio, that calls for more bullish efforts to find new water supplies, as well as more conservation of existing resources.
``It's time to look for new and untapped sources,'' Perry told an audience at a San Antonio Water System plant near downtown. ``There's no greater potential supply of new water than what splashes upon hundreds of miles of Texas coastline.''
Perry said he would ask the Texas Water Development Board, working with regional water-planning panels, to put together the details for a demonstration plant to strip the salt from ocean water to create drinking water that can be piped around the state.
With the state's population expected to double in the next 40 or so years, he said, ``we can't wait to address the issue of a safe, abundant water supply. We have to make plans today.''
The state has a number of small inland desalination plants, but none along the coast or comparable in size to facilities at work in California, Florida and other places.
Rep. Ron Lewis, D-Mauriceville and a member of the House Natural Resource Committee, agreed that Texas has no choice but to face its water needs head-on.
``If we don't have a supply of clean, safe water, this state is going to dry up and blow away,'' said Lewis, who was traveling with the governor.
Todd Vottler, a water-resource planner with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, said a desalination plant would address the often-contentious efforts to move water from places that have too much of it to places that don't have enough.
``An almost limitless source of seawater would get around some of the issues faced on the scarcity of (water) sources,'' he said.
Perry proposed increased use of tax-free investment bonds to finance the desalination plant and other water-related projects.
The governor's initiative also called for:
Perry also said the state should be mindful of keeping its water safe from terrorists and other threats.
He said he has directed all Texas Parks and Wildlife patrol officers to also police dams and water-intake facilities to ensure their security, and he will seek the help of federal-state law-enforcement groups to protect coastal ports and waterways.
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