The Texas Water Development Board meets Wednesday morning for a briefing session with nothing on it to vote on. Six days ago the board adopted the 2027 State Water Plan, but that document is a stripped-down version written fast to keep construction money moving, and Wednesday is the board’s first public look at the draft of the full one.
The plan approved July 23 is labeled Phase I. The agency says it was put together on an accelerated schedule to meet a July 2026 deadline for committing money from the state’s water construction fund, months ahead of the plan’s own legal deadline. It meets the legal requirements but leaves out the analysis and narrative that filled earlier plans. Phase I still carries the big numbers: population up 53 percent by 2080, about 6,700 recommended strategies and roughly $174 billion in capital cost. Whether the fuller version changes any of that is the question for Wednesday. The board’s press release says the amendment is expected in the fall. No schedule has been published.
Staff will also brief the board on Senate Bill 3, the outdoor warning siren law from last year’s second special session. It requires flood sirens in the 30 counties covered by the governor’s disaster declaration after the July 2025 Hill Country floods. It is not the Legislature’s water finance package; that was a different bill, paired with a constitutional amendment voters approved. The siren law sets no deadline for anything, so every date in the program is one the agency or a grant contract created. Rules took effect in May, a siren guide came out in January, and the agency is handing out $50 million, starting at $1 million a county, with county plans due December 31.
Item 2 is a briefing on next year’s draft spending plans for the two federal-state loan funds that finance most Texas water and sewer construction, the clean water and drinking water revolving funds. Each plan ranks projects and names the borrowers invited to apply. Nothing is posted yet for next year. Last year’s draft came out August 15 and the board adopted it October 2.
One line on the agenda cannot be checked. Item 1 lists discussion of a “State Climatologist’s Advisory Report,” and no document by that name appears on the state climatologist’s site, on the agency’s site, in the Texas Register or in any bill from last year’s Legislature. Ask the agency what it is before describing it in print. And nothing Wednesday is settled: work session items carry the line “No final action will be taken on this item.” The fuller water plan and the spending plans come back as votes later this year.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:30 AM CT, Wednesday, August 5, 2026. The board’s calendar blocks 9:30 to 11:30 AM.
- Where
- Room 2.029, Barbara Jordan Building, 1601 Congress Ave., Austin 78701
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Water Development Board — three full-time members appointed by the governor. Chairwoman L’Oreal Stepney, P.E., of Pflugerville, chair since January 2025. Executive administrator: Bryan McMath.
- Format
- Work session, not the monthly board meeting. Both briefing items say “No final action will be taken.” Item 3 is public comment. Visitors must file the online registration form by 8:30 a.m.
- Live video
- None advertised. Regular board-meeting agendas usually carry a video link and a Teams link; work session agendas carry neither. Treat as in person only unless the agency says otherwise.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State notice · TWDB calendar entry · TWDB board agendas — the agency had not posted its own work session agenda page as of July 29.
Board members
- L’Oreal Stepney, P.E., Pflugerville — chairwoman since January 2025, term ends 2029.
- W. Brady Franks, Austin — appointed September 2025; former state budget director.
- Ashley Morgan, Georgetown — joined October 2025; previously a state-government lawyer.
Roster: TWDB Board Members · Executive Administration. Kathleen Ligon, assistant executive administrator, is the agenda contact.