Water For Our Future

The drought that we experienced in 2006 brought everyone to the realization of how important water is to our future here in Collin County. We have doubled the population of the area from 2000 to 2007, and have only increased our water capacity by 15%. Now that we have 750,000 people in Collin County (as of Jan 2008) we are at the very limit of water usage.

I will move forward with conservation and water re-use incentives by working with the cities to give businesses and homeowners a reason to use less water on a daily basis, and fight to end the Take-Or-Pay contracts that punish our cities for conserving water. Collin County is slated to double in size again by 2030. We cannot wait to find water until after the well is dry.
 

Water became a front-of-mind issue back in ’06 due to the drought that year, but the drought Collin County experienced in the mid-1960’s was twice as devastating and lasted for twice as long. We are ill-prepared for that level of water loss, and the answer is not simply to build more reservoirs and groundwater districts, but to work on water re-use and conservation measures immediately.
 

The North Texas Municipal Water District has new pumping facilities coming online by 2020, but they will not increase the amount of water we need fast enough. It is imperative that the cities and our county government get on board with regulations on drought tolerant grass and residential water conservation plans that help citizens become pro-active.
 

The business side of the equation is also important. As Collin County continues to grow, we need solid movement forward on regulations and incentives so that businesses build their structures with water re-use and recycling in mind. Companies such as McKinney’s new Pat Lobb Toyota dealership re-use such a large percentage of water in their car wash that his bill is a fraction of any other dealership. This is important, because companies will use these measures if they have a good Return On Investment!