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Texas
Agriculture Archive
May 3, 2002
BRA changes to meet
region's water needs
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
In terms of liquid assets, water beats all others hands down. Ensuring that the state has ample water for domestic, industrial and agricultural use for the foreseeable future is on the minds of all forward thinking Texans and a priority for lawmakers. To help meet the water demands and challenges of the 21st century, the Brazos River Authority (BRA) in March 2001 tapped retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Phil Ford to serve as its General Manager/CEO.
Ford insists that Texas does not currently have a water shortage problem, but rather a distribution problem. But without proper planning, given the rapid population growth, he says shortages could occur.
A native Texan, Ford has been charged with implementing goals and objectives that will affect the BRA budget, the new headquarters and the way the organization does business.
"In working toward these objectives, I have taken a methodical, measured approach to each and every change being considered. My professional goal is to establish credibility for the BRA within the community, with our customers and with our employees. My personal goal is to make sound, well-informed decisions so that changes need to be implemented only once. These changes will be positive for everyone," says Ford.
Beyond revamping the BRA for quicker response, so it will be more attune with the needs of those whom it serves, Ford believes it is important to do a better job educating people in the basin as to what the BRA does and how well it does it.
New facility in Waco
The Brazos River Authority, including personnel operating out of various leased space in Waco, moved into a new 40,000 square-foot facility at 4600 Cobbs Drive—just west of its old headquarters—last November. Originally located in Mineral Wells, the Authority moved its headquarters to Waco in 1960. At that time, the Authority had only nine employees in its headquarters.
"Today, we have 255 employees, with 77 of those in the Central Office in Waco," Ford notes.
Established by the Texas Legislature in 1929, the BRA oversees a 42,000-square-mile swath of land including all or part of 70 counties that traverses the state from the Texas-New Mexico border west of Lubbock to the Gulf of Mexico near Freeport. Normal rainfall gradually increases from West to East, ranging from about 19 inches a year in Lubbock to more than 56 inches a year in Angleton.
"It's an area larger than the state of Tennessee. The span of control is pretty enormous, so we divided it into three regions—Upper, Central and Lower—all with unique challenges and needs. The Upper is dominated by agriculture. It's arid and has areas of salt. The Central region is defined by a lot of water, but tremendous population growth, especially in Williamson County. The population is very dense. We are trying to act as an ombudsman with the entities involved—Round Rock, Leander, Cedar Park. We are trying to make smart business decisions. The Lower region has taken a back seat in the past, but that will change," says Ford.
The CEO has crafted a bold reorganization plan, taking into account factors such as weather, economy, population, water supplies, customers, water sales philosophy, federal policies, board and staff. He has taken steps to run the BRA more like a business, in order to create additional or new water sources to grow and meet shifts in population. Four concepts are embodied in BRA's mission.
"First, we must anticipate the needs in the basin. Second, we want to be aggressive, ahead of our time. Then we want to build to make smart business decisions, and we want to position the basin for the future. We've gone from one to 266 customers since our inception. It's important that we know who our customers are, so we have implemented a government and customer relations division to address their needs. Likewise, we have added a strategic planning division to guide the organization to the future. The whole organization basically is designed to support the regional managers. All interact. Finally, we've created a new business development division to identify and build water projects necessary for the constituents of the Brazos River basin. We are emphasizing a 'grassroots' process, rather than 'top down' planning," Ford says.
The Brazos River Authority owns and operates four lakes—Possum Kingdom, Granbury, Limestone and Alan Henry. Two new reservoirs are presently being planned, Allens Creek (Austin County) and Little River (Milam County).
"We contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the water storage space in nine Federal reservoirs, which they own and operate. The Corps operates the projects as elements of a basin-wide flood-control system (and for public recreation). The BRA pays for the cost of water supply storage. Altogether, 12 reservoirs have a dependable water supply yield of more than 661,901 acre-feet per year."
Impacts of S.B. 1
Senate Bill 1 created the Brazos G Regional Water Planning Area, to prepare a plan to meet the water needs of the Brazos region for the next 50 years. According to Ford, the Texas Water Development Board has received regional water plans from the Brazos G region and each of the other regions. The TWDB is in the process of reviewing the 16 regional water plans and is developing a statewide water plan.
The Brazos River Authority provides administrative support for Brazos G group (37 counties in middle Brazos basin), has voting representation on that group and on Llano Estacado (Panhandle) and Region H (4 lower basin counties in with Houston). Together, the three regions cover the Brazos River watershed. Integration of SB 1 planning with BRA's own long-range strategic planning has its challenges, Ford notes.
While Ford is proud that the BRA "offers the cheapest water per acre feet of anyone in the state," he suggests that keeping the rates low doesn't leave much room for building new projects.
"We're in an era when water issues may become like barb wire in the Old West," he observes. "We're faced with conjunctive use of groundwater. Rule of capture may or may not prevail as a water philosophy. The question is, do you want someone such as the BRA managing water, but without a profit motive, or do you want speculators in control of the valuable resources? We are trying to serve consumers with an entrepreneurial flavor. We're multifaceted on how to approach the fix. There is no simple fix. Many of our initiatives will not be realized in my lifetime, but I hope our children will benefit from them. That is our legacy, that someday they will say someone in 2002 was smart enough to think 50 to 60 years ahead."
