During its June 26 Board meeting, the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) authorized the Executive Administrator to negotiate and execute grant contract(s) on or before October 31, 2014, in a total amount not to exceed $1,500,000 from the Agricultural Water Conservation Fund for Fiscal Year 2014 agricultural water conservation metering project(s).
The grants marked a significant milestone for TWDB: since the agricultural program’s inception in 1985, the agency has now funded more than $100 million in agricultural water conservation projects.
The grants were awarded to five groundwater conservation districts to offset the cost of agricultural irrigation metering in support of conservation strategies from the 2012 State Water Plan.
- The Coastal Bend Groundwater Conservation District, which covers all of Wharton County in the Coastal Plains region of Texas overlying the Gulf Coast Aquifer, received $25,000.
- The Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, which includes all of Carson, Gray, Roberts, Donley and Wheeler counties and parts of Potter, Armstrong and Hutchinson counties overlying the Ogallala Aquifer, received $107,500.
- The Mesquite Groundwater Conservation District received $150,000. The district covers all of Collingsworth and Hall counties and parts of Childress and Briscoe counties in the Southeastern portion of the Texas Panhandle overlying the Seymour and Blaine aquifers.
- The North Plains Groundwater Conservation District received $600,000. The district encompasses 4.7 million acres in Dallam, Hansford, Lipscomb, Ochiltree and Sherman counties, as well as parts of Hartley, Hutchinson and Moore counties overlying the Ogallala Aquifer.
- The High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 received $617,500. The district covers approximately 7.6 million acres in Bailey, Cochran, Hale, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Parmer and Swisher Counties, as well as parts of Armstrong, Castro, Crosby, Deaf Smith, Floyd, Hockley, Potter and Randall counties overlying the Ogallala Aquifer.
During the meeting the TWDB alsoauthorizing the Executive Administrator to publish a request for applications in the Texas Register for Fiscal Year 2015 Agricultural Water Conservation Grants for a total amount not to exceed $2,100,000 from the Agricultural Water Conservation Fund. For more details on an application for funding, please visit: http://www.twdb.texas.gov/about/contract_admin/rfq/RFA_AgGrants.asp
