Texas voters approved $20 billion for water infrastructure on November 4, 2025, by passing Proposition 4 with 70.57% of the vote. This constitutional amendment authorized a long-term investment, allocating up to $1 billion annually from sales tax revenue to the Texas Water Fund over 20 years, totaling $20 billion.
The vote created a constitutional framework to provide funding for projects such as new water supply development, infrastructure repair, and flood mitigation.
But Texas water advocates say this funding is just the beginning and the caution that it will only go so far. The water needs of Texas are great, and the state needs nearly $154 billion by 2050, according to the Texas Water Plan developed by Texas 2036.
In addition, advocates say Texas leaders must address some of the structural challenges to how water is allocated in the state, including modifications to the “Rule of Capture” for pumping groundwater.
The Texas Rule of Capture is a common law doctrine that gives landowners the right to pump as much groundwater from beneath their property as they can, even if it lowers the water table and affects their neighbors' wells. However, this rule has significant legislative and common law exceptions, such as regulations by local groundwater conservation districts, permits for certain withdrawals or transfers, and restrictions against malice, waste, or negligence.
The lack of understanding and regulation for the Rule of Capture was highlighted recently when East Texans raised the alarm about a proposed groundwater project that would pump billions of gallons from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
The plan proposed by a Dallas-area businessman is completely legal, but it is based on laws established before Texas was industrialized when Texans still relied on horses and buggies. State Rep. Gary Van Deaver (R-New Boston) said recently that in most counties, the person with the biggest and fastest pump can pull as much water from an aquifer as they want, as long as it’s not done with malicious intent.
Texas is at a point where it needs to seriously consider how to update the Rule of Capture because society has modernized, he added. People are no longer pulling water from the aquifers with a hand pump and two-inch pipes.
“Modern technology and modern needs have outpaced the regulations that we have in place, the safeguards we have in place for that groundwater,” Van Deaver said. “In some ways we, in the legislature, are a little behind the times here and we’re having to catch up.”
Meanwhile, the state's leadership continues to maintain that climate change isn’t real and won’t have a significant and detrimental impact on its ability to address future water scarcity.
This stance has meant the state’s official water planning strategies are based on outdated historical data and ignores the intensified droughts driven by a warming climate. This leads to flawed planning assumptions and a failure to implement robust, climate-resilient solutions.
The state's water plan uses the drought of record from the 1950s as its primary benchmark. Climate change, however, is projected to bring hotter, drier conditions and more intense droughts that could be worse than anything in the 20th century.
By not incorporating these "hotter/drier futures" into models, the state is underestimating the severity of future water shortfalls.
Guest:
Vanessa Puig-Williams is the senior director of climate resilient water systems at the Environmental Defense Fund.
"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org.
This episode will be recorded on Wednesday, December 3, 2025.
