The Texas Water Development Board approved $225 million in multi-year loans for the North Harris County Regional Water Authority July 21.

The funding comes from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas program, or SWIFT, which was passed by voters in 2013 to fund water projects statewide. The most recent round of financial assistance totals $759 million and targets 15 projects, all of which are recommended in the 2017 State Water Plan.

This funding for NHCRWA will be broken down to support two separate projects and could ultimately save the authority $25 million over the life of the loan, according to Mark Evans, director of planning and governmental affairs for the authority.

“We will get a subsidized rate of 20 percent,” Evans said. “The [Texas] Water Development Board estimates on a 30-year maturity the authority will see a great deal of savings.”

The first loan amounting to $117 million will be used for 17 miles of pipeline that will convey treated water from the Northeast Water Purification Plant to the City of Houston, NHCRWA and Central Harris County Regional Water Authority. All three entities will be able to increase their water supply, officials said.

The remaining $107 million will finance about 12 miles of pipeline, three 12-million-gallon storage tanks, four 25,000-gallon hydropneumatic tanks and a pump station located near Hwy. 249. This is part of an internal distribution expansion plan set to service numerous MUDs in the region.

“These projects are needed to meet the needs of our expanding population in the authority boundaries as well as the conversion to surface water,” Evans said.

SWIFT was created through the transfer of a one-time, $2 billion appropriation from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. The $2 billion will be leveraged with revenue bonds over the next 50 years to finance approximately $27 billion in water supply projects, according to TWDB officials. The first cycle of SWIFT program financing was completed in 2015.