AUSTIN (NEXSTAR) — Texas voters approved a generational investment in water infrastructure Tuesday night after approving an additional $20 billion for the Texas Water Fund over the next two decades. However, the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), which administers the fund, said the money will not be available until the fall of 2029.
The initiative was put on the ballot as the fourth proposal. More than 70% of the vote, just over two million people, agreed to go ahead with the investment. The money will be used to improve aging water infrastructure across the state and help fund new water sources as the state’s population continues to grow.
“Texas faces more than $200 billion in wastewater and flood infrastructure needs in the next 50 years,” said Sarah Kirkle, director of policy and legislative affairs at the Texas Water Association. “So the $20 billion is a really important first step.”
In 2023, Texas water systems would be cleaned and produce 1.17 trillion gallons of water. Of that amount, 158 billion gallons were lost to leaks — 13% of the total water produced, according to the Texas Water Development Board. TWDB estimates the value of the water loss at more than $326 million.
To put the scale of water loss in perspective, 158 billion gallons — the amount lost to leaks in 2023 — equates to nearly half a million acre-feet, or enough to fill Lake Austin about 20 times.
Data from 2023 are the most recent state-level data available online from the Texas Water Development Board. TWDB tracks municipal water system losses through annual audits.
For example, Austin lost 9.3 billion gallons of water last year, enough for every quarter of a million water connections in the city to leak 110 gallons a day, according to city water loss audit data.
Water loss experts who spoke with KXAN said many major cities, including Houston and San Antonio, are also struggling to get their leaks under control. It’s very expensive to go out and get a new water source, so stopping leaks – and saving the water we’ve already produced – is an important effort.
“Reducing water loss provides utilities with the ability to increase water use efficiency, improve their financial standing, and aid in long-term water sustainability,” according to TWDB.
Water prices continue to rise across the state as water utilities and municipalities try to finance expensive and complex wastewater and water projects, Kirkle said. “By utilizing state rate reduction programs and by leveraging state interest rates, we can see reductions in the cost of these projects to those communities and ultimately to the taxpayers,” Kirkle explained.
Voters approved an initial one-time investment of $1 billion in the Texas Water Fund in 2023. The TWDB Fund was required to allocate at least 25% of those funds to the New Texas Water Supply Fund.
As of September 2025, TWDB has allocated more than $735 million in funding from the Texas Water Fund through several financial assistance programs, according to a statement from an agency spokesperson. That letter said 46 projects had been invited to submit full applications.
The Legislature will have to allocate the first round of new funding, totaling $2 billion per biennium, in the 90th Legislative Session, which will be held in 2027. Once approved, the Texas Comptroller will transfer the allocated funds to the water fund in 2028.
The money can only be transferred if sales tax revenues exceed $46.5 billion in a single fiscal year. If revenues do not reach this threshold, no money will be transferred to the water fund.