SRBA moves funds to pay Army Corps

Money switched from 2018 budget to the 2017 one

MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas—The Sulphur River Basin Authority’s board of directors held a special meeting Thursday to amend the 2017 and 2018 budgets.

They voted to move a $375,000 line item from the 2018 budget to the 2017 budget to reflect a payment they made to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier in August to complete the Tentatively Selected Plan, which would determine if, and how high, Wright Patman Lake could be raised for additional water storage.

Board President Wally Kraft explained why they moved the money between the budgets.

“That’s the money that we paid the corps for their work on the TSP and we’ve already paid that money, so our budget looks right. We’re not going to have a negative budget,” he said. “If we waited until the first of October, we’d have the money anyway. We did that so the books look right, so we could get on with

the corps doing their work.”

SRBA is funded by the Joint Committee for Program Development, a group comprised of the city of Dallas, the city of Irving, North Texas Municipal Water District, Tarrant Regional Water District and the Upper Trinity Water District. If SRBA does not spend the entire amount JCPD gives them each year, the funding goes back to the member entities. In August, JCPD sent a letter to SRBA supporting the $350,000 payment to the corps.

The 2017 budget shows a total budget of $1,069,548, which includes $664,548 for the feasibility study (which includes the TSP) and $170,000 for Consultant John Jarvis’ salary and expenses.

The 2018 budget is $308,000 and does not include funds for the feasibility study. Jarvis’ salary and expenses total $63,000 with $20,000 budgeted for Water Quality Consultant Mike Buttram’s salary and expenses.

Operations for each budget is $225,000.

During the regular meeting held Aug. 15, Jarvis said he’s been meeting with the corps, and that with the additional funding, they expect the TSP to be complete by April 2018.

In other business, the board approved applying for a $65,000 grant through the Texas Water Resources Institute. Buttram told the board TWRI used a Soil and Water Assessment Tool last year in the basin through a similar grant and that it will give SRBA more information on what’s happening in the basin.

“They’re going to do a whole new SWAT study, plus generalized study of the whole basin to kind of give us an idea of what we’re looking at as far as potential future grant applications,” he said.