Texas Water Development Board approves $8,000,000 to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (DeWitt, Victoria, Calhoun, Refugio, Gonzales, Caldwell, Hays, Comal, Guadalupe, and Kendall counties) for a seawater desalination project

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AUSTIN – (July 23, 2015) – The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) today approved by resolution financial assistance in the amount of $8,000,000 from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority [GBRA] (DeWitt, Victoria, Calhoun, Refugio, Gonzales, Caldwell, Hays, Comal, Guadalupe, and Kendall counties). The assistance will allow GBRA to perform a feasibility study on a seawater desalination project.

GBRA could save approximately $997,574 over the life of the loan by using SWIFT.

The assistance will allow GBRA to finance a study to identify a site and transmission and delivery options for an Integrated Water and Power Project (IWPP). The study will examine the feasibility of diverting and treating seawater from the Gulf of Mexico and then conveying it to areas in the central and Gulf coastal regions of South Texas. The IWPP is expected to include at least a 25-million-gallon-per-day seawater desalination plant co-located with a power plant along the Texas Gulf Coast. The IWPP will provide additional water supplies and provide source diversification.

The TWDB is the state agency charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional planning, and preparing the state water plan for the development of the state's water resources. The TWDB administers cost-effective financial assistance programs for the construction of water supply, wastewater treatment, flood control, and agricultural water conservation projects.