Averitt water idea deserves hearing

Sen. Kip Averitt's plans to improve air quality may be advancing, but the Waco Republican's proposal to use the Rainy Day Fund to finance Texas' water plan is running into problems.

His proposal has been sent to the Senate Finance Committee, which ordinarily would sound good. Except the committee already produced the Senate's budget, and Averitt's request to move money from the Rainy Day Fund into the state's water infrastructure fund was not in it.

Naturally, this makes us nervous. In 2005, the House punted away the session's big water legislation. In 2007, the session's major measure passed only at the last moment – and only after considerable publicity.

Maybe you're one of those Texans who wonder: "What's the big deal? We'll always have water, won't we?"

Answer: Maybe not. Look at California. Drought has stopped irrigation in its Central Valley breadbasket, which is almost unthinkable, given the importance of California's huge agricultural industry.

Texas risks a similar dilemma. Our state could run out of the water it needs to keep it growing if legislators don't fund a water plan that includes everything from desalination projects to new reservoirs to better conservation.

Without funding, the Texas Water Development Board estimates, water shortages during drought would cost businesses and workers $9.1 billion per year by 2010. And that risk grows. Businesses and workers would lose $98.4 billion per year by 2060.

And 85 percent of Texans in 2060 would lack sufficient water in times of droughts.

Those are serious numbers, which legislators can't fix overnight. They require work far in advance – and 2010 is not far.

Nor are drought conditions. South-central Texas remains in a crippling drought; other regions face their own dry conditions.

And Texas keeps growing. In fact, it is the fastest-growing big state, which means more and more residents and businesses that need water.

The state's water plan has a way to provide that, and Averitt has a way to finance it.

The Senate Finance Committee should quit stalling on that first step to make it happen.

This Editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on April 10, 2009.