Hays County and Williamson County Commissioners Courts hosted a meeting April 14 with representatives from Travis County and other state and local agencies to discuss the viability of forming a regional utility development corporation. Staffers also discussed a possible regional water policy and water reservation and supply agreements.

Williamson County Judge Dan Gattis and Hays County Judge Bert Cobb moderated the second in a series of meetings at the Williamson County Jester Annex.

Although no joint resolution resulted from the talks, Gattis said participants wanted a unified effort to obtain and transport water to the Central Texas cities and municipalities involved.

"There's a consensus that we need to form some type of regional organization," Gattis said.

He said that either one or both of two types of cooperative groups are possible—to form a grid-type infrastructure, similar to the state's Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and to jointly secure a water supply and set policy regarding that supply.

Hays County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ray Whisenant said the regional ability to allocate water, such as what ERCOT does for electricity, would enable the organization to move water to areas and counties as needed.

On April 1, by a 5-1 vote, Williamson County commissioners approved an option contract on 180 acres of land owned by aluminum company Alcoa that sits on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer and can possibly provide extracted groundwater to the area. The aquifer extends through the Central Texas counties of Caldwell, Bastrop, Lee, Burleson and Milam.

"All we know is [there are water possibilities in] Lee and Bastrop Counties and we're looking for whatever else is out there," Gattis said.

State Representative Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) said that forming a coalition among counties along the I-35 corridor would be a better way to approach the problem of water supply than individual city or county efforts. He cited the Hays County commissioners' Sept. 24 reservation of water rights in the Simsboro Aquifer and the recent Williamson County option contract as reason for a coalition in which both actions could be joined for a greater benefit to the whole region.

"We haven't moved forward with that one solution," Isaac said. "There's no doubt in my mind that water is a problem we [will] have in Central Texas. The more water we're going to have and from more sources, the better off we'll be."

Whisenant proposed that each county participating in the development corporation would get equal portions of reserved water and then work within the entities to determine how the water will be further allocated.

Mike Robinson, president of Lone Star Regional Water Authority, said his organization—formed by the Texas Legislature in 2011—lacks taxing authority but can sell bonds to build the infrastructure needed to pipe water to the participating entities. He said the raw water cost from Brazos River Authority is $63 per acre-foot and $151 per acre-foot from Lower Colorado River Authority.

Hays County Judge Bert Cobb agreed with Isaac, proposing a unified approach to serve water to customers in the region.

"If every city in my county built their own pipeline to the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, it would be silly," he said. "The best way is a public-private partnership."

Williamson County Commissioner Lisa Birkman said conservation efforts, including possible graywater use, must be considered as well.

Birkman, the lone dissenting vote in the April 1 decision, questioned commissioners during the April 14 meeting whether the Central Texas participating municipalities and cities were the right entities to expand into the water business.

"Any government should think long and hard about taking on a new role or [question] whether others can do it better," she said. "Providing water is not one of our core constitutional duties. With a growing county, we have a lot of core duties we have to pay for and we have to ensure this [new role] doesn't infringe on those [duties]."

Gattis said the group will reconvene in two weeks and include officials from Bastrop and Lee counties.