A weeks-long boil water advisory in Ellis County. Foamy, contaminated water in Grand Prairie. A punctured water main in Fort Worth.
A string of examples from this year shows how much residents rely on clean, safe water and the issues that arise when it’s not guaranteed.
“Something like drinking water infrastructure is not as obvious to people until it goes horribly wrong,” said John Easton, the associate chair of civil and environmental engineering at Southern Methodist University.
In Texas, aging infrastructure and a lack of resources are impacting residents’ access to water. At the same time, the state’s growth is expected to outpace its projected water supply, according to the Texas Water Development Board, making the resource even more valuable to the state. As funds dry up, water utilities are struggling to keep up with demands.
Limited funds, growing needs
Aging infrastructure is an issue for water utilities across the state, said Lara Zent, executive director and general counsel of Texas Rural Water Association, a group seeking to support small utilities serving rural communities. Water lines tend to be the last thing that’s replaced as above-ground infrastructure is often prioritized.
The lack of priority given to water infrastructure shows. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave Texas a C-minus for drinking water and a D for wastewater in their 2021 report card.
A 2021 report by the Environmental Protection Agency found the country’s drinking water infrastructure needs $625 billion in funding in the next 20 years.
Texas passed legislation in 2023 creating the Texas Water Fund and allocating $1 billion for water infrastructure projects and conservation. Zent thinks $1 billion is “a drop in the bucket” for the state’s infrastructure needs.
Easton said the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act from the federal government contributed funds for better infrastructure, which helped improve the state’s water systems. But that funding will end by or in 2026.
“If we don’t continue to invest at those levels, it’s just going to pop right back to where it was,” Easton said.
The North Texas Municipal Water District recognized this need. Its board of directors approved a 10.3% increase to $820 million in 2025, according to a news release. The district cited rapid growth in the region for the need to increase infrastructure investments.
“We need to build new infrastructure and maintain our aging systems to ensure we continue to deliver essential services people in our region depend on every day,” Jenna Covington, the executive director and general manager of NTMWD, said in the release.
Easton said governments like funding new projects but fall behind with ongoing maintenance. Ultimately, costs for civil works come from public money, Easton said, which is in short supply.
“Nobody likes to see their taxes raised and higher rates for drinking water,” Easton said.
Population and climate stress water systems
Population and climate change are adding stress to aging systems. As communities grow, their water systems are expected to keep up. As climate change alters rain patterns, Easton said water systems meant to handle an expected amount of water may deal with too much or too little.
Water infrastructure needs to be more resilient in the state, Easton said, to handle these stressors. Conservation efforts could help, such as low-flow toilets, drip irrigation, repairing old pipes and finding leaks in the distribution system. Because there’s not a lot of development of new water supplies, he said, available available water wisely is key.
“If you’re conserving water, you don’t have to provide as much,” Easton said. “You free up resources that could be used to replace pipes that are old.”
Soil patterns in the state contribute to stress on water infrastructure, Easton said. Soil contracts as it dries out in the summer, then swells and expands in rain. This strains pipe networks that are old, corroding and underfunded, Easton said.
“When the ground is expanding and contracting due to drought or due to floods,” Zent said, “It can move the lines and cause them to be more prone to leaking, especially when they are older.”
The state is looking for ways to ensure future water sources for Texans. This fall, state officials redrew an underwater Texas-Oklahoma boundary, bringing the pump station on one of the nation’s largest manmade lakes fully back into Texas. It should ensure the availability of about 30% of the drinking water supply for more than 2 million people in North Texas, the Texas General Land Office announced in November.
Rural water utilities face challenges
For small utilities relying on funds from customer rates, it can be hard to keep up in the face of expensive, aging infrastructure, Zent said.
The TRWA is one source of assistance for small utilities and rural communities, but Zent said rural water supply corporations can also look to government sources of financing and grant funding for help with large infrastructure projects.
The Texas Water Development Board offers loan and grant programs, including through the Rural Water Assistance Fund. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has grant and loan funding resources for rural communities and their water systems.
In rural areas, Easton sees an opportunity to help water utilities connect with grant funding and educational resources. Both rural and urban communities could benefit from more investment in water infrastructure.
“That stuff is down underground, out of sight,” Easton said. “We all rely on it. You really don’t notice it until something catastrophic happens.”