The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) has recently taken an exciting step forward by allocating over $86 million in financing and grant funding for water and wastewater improvements across the state since 2018—the first commitment of its kind in several years. This funding, channeled through the Economically Distressed Areas Program (EDAP), is designed for economically distressed residential areas where current water and sewer services are either non-existent or insufficient to meet the state’s standards. The qualifying areas for this initiative are those where the median household income does not surpass 75% of the Texas state average.
The TWDB’s funding comes from legislative appropriations, which granted the body a $100 million budget for the 2022 – 23 biennium. It has since assigned funds to seven entities, covering a total of eight projects. Notably, eastern El Paso County’s Montana Vista community has been earmarked for a critical project that will grant the area its first-ever wastewater service, a transformative move away from the problematic septic systems the local residents have had to rely on for far too long. The project, which involves transitioning residents to a centralized wastewater collection system and decommissioning the existing septic tanks, is currently in its first phase of implementation. The first phases were funded in 2014, and it has recently received another $28.9 million in EDAP funding for its second phase.
Since EDAP’s inception in 1989, Texas legislature seized the opportunity to address these essential requirements and has committed over $900 million in total grants and loans through the program. The TWDB expects to divvy out remaining funds to additional projects in the near future as they continue to prioritize the needs of persistently underserved communities throughout the state.