Water group to discuss hiring an executive director

Funding agreement and strategic plan also on tap

The Sulphur River Basin Authority Board of Directors will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday to consider their funding agreement, strategic plan and hiring an executive director.

House Bill 2180, passed in 2017 by the Texas Legislature, requires SRBA to hire an executive director, form a strategic plan and seek outside funding.

SRBA was created in 1985 by state lawmakers to oversee and preserve the Sulphur River basin but was not given a funding source. It is solely funded by the Joint Commission for Program Development, comprised of five water districts in the Dallas Metroplex. Those districts are seeking water for their projected population growth.

Last month, the board was set to approve the annual funding agreement with JCPD and consider an executive director, but the item was tabled after Riverbend Water Resources District and the city of Texarkana, Texas, asked the organization to delay a vote on the items, since SRBA Board Member Kelly Mitchell was not at the August meeting.

Last month, both Riverbend and the city passed resolutions stating distrust in SRBA and its Chairman Chris Spencer, who accidentally sent an email intended for his attorney to Mitchell, who previously served on the Riverbend board. Mitchell had suggested changes to the funding contract with JCPD, which requires any new water project in the basin to supply them with 20 percent of the water developed at no cost.

SRBA has partnered with several engineering firms and the Army Corps of Engineers to study the basin

and Wright Patman Lake to determine the amount of water available and whether the lake could be raised to the ultimate rule curve of 228.64 feet. The city of Texarkana, Texas, has water rights in the lake up to the 220 feet, the interim rule curve, under which the lake is now operated. All of Riverbend’s 16 members, including Texarkana, passed resolutions supporting the water district’s pursuing additional water rights if they become available.

At the August meeting, Texarkana water liaison Steve Mayo addressed the board during the public comment session and said he hoped all three groups could work together to preserve stakeholder interests in the basin.

The board also will hear an update on the feasibility study the corps is conducting on the lake, which will determine if and how high it could be raised and the potential effects of doing so.

The meeting will be held at the Mount Pleasant Convention Center, 1800 N. Jefferson Ave., Mount Pleasant, Texas.