Parting the waters: What if Killeen overtook the area water board?

• By Lauren Dodd and Thaddeus Imerman | Herald staff writers

Since 1955, the Bell County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 has treated and supplied drinking water from Belton and Stillhouse lakes to Nolanville, Harker Heights, Killeen, Copperas Cove and Fort Hood, one of America’s largest military installations. The decades-old agreement grants the district the ability to lease the Belton treatment plant from the government for use supplying water to Fort Hood and surrounding civilian cities.

As those cities grew over the years, and water demand has increased, Temple exited Bell County WCID-1, built its own water plant, and took control of their own water rights.

Temple did not respond to a request for comment by deadline Saturday.

Over the years, Killeen, along with the other participating cities, has signed on the dotted line for a share in more than $110.5 million in bonds to pay for needed repairs at the Belton Lake water plant.

In April, citing an increase in gasoline and chlorine cost, the WCID-1 seven-member board approved increased treated water and wastewater rates — an increase area cities may pass along to water customers.

After recently approving to pay $12 million for backup power generation the water plant needed decades ago, area cities are also being asked to pay for an approximately $152-million-dollar Belton Lake water plant expansion.

Former Brazos River Authority board member Horace Grace, a Killeen resident, said the math doesn’t make sense.

“Killeen doesn’t need to be continuously buying generators, rebuilding sewage treatment plants, and doing what all they’re being asked to do, for that amount of money without having any control,” Grace said.

“This is the largest WCID in the state of Texas for water because they say they own it,” he said. “We’re trying to do what Temple, Waco, Georgetown, and Round Rock has done. If they can control their water, why can’t we?”

DISSOLUTION

There are many ways to dissolve a water district, according to Austin-based law firm Cobbs & Counsel, but none of them are easy.

“Water districts are hard to create in Texas — and even harder to get rid of, especially when they’re active,” Cobbs & Counsel wrote about water districts in 2021.

Water districts may be dissolved one of the following ways:

All parties’ representing boards and councils vote to do so.

If the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requires it.

Or if citizens petition for an election to vote on such a measure.

In a scenario where the Killeen City Council would have to vote on such a change, there seems to be little to no interest from Killeen officials in doing so.

Only Killeen Councilman Jose Segarra responded to an inquiry sent by the Herald to all members of the city’s governing body, including Mayor Debbie Nash-King. He stated clearly that he would not be in favor of the city pursuing a dissolution of WCID-1.

“When it all comes down to it, it’s all about cost and the hundreds of millions it would cost us to do something like this,” Segarra said in an email Tuesday evening. “In an era where cities are looking to save citizens money, by creating partnerships with other entities, it would not make any sense to assume the responsibilities of something like this and then pass on the tremendous bill to our citizens when we should all be focused on obtaining more water rights as a region.”

Despite multiple attempts from the Herald, Killeen city staff had not responded to questions from the newspaper regarding the matter.

Outages and solutions

In spite of millions of dollars worth of bonds to pay for necessary upgrades, the area’s water has had a number of interruptions over the past 12 months.

After the Belton Lake water plant lost power on Mother’s Day, May 8, 275,000 residents and businesses from Belton to Copperas Cove were forced to boil their otherwise potable water for days.

In October, a water quality issue in the city caused Killeen residents to boil water before drinking it for 10 days straight.

The Killeen City Council has examined the possibility of owning its own water system, something experts said would cost almost $1 billion to build from the ground up, but has not studied the option of dissolving the water district, taking control of the existing facilities in order to supply water to surrounding entities.

Grace said, from a financial standpoint, the current agreement is not feasible in the long run.

“It is time for Killeen to take a hard look at being responsible and taking over WCID because of the amount of money Killeen is being asked to put up,” Grace said.

WCID-1

Rob Robinson, the president of the WCID-1 board of directors, asked what an entity would have to gain should it dissolve the district.

“We provide very low water rates, we provide potable water, so what power play is going on? What is someone trying to gain to better their citizens or the future of their communities? That’s the question,” said Robinson, a former Harker Heights mayor. “We’re doing great — and I’ll say that. We’re doing great.”

WCID-1’s current contract with Killeen allows for a lot of wiggle room on the district’s part — no fixed water rates to control the cost of water for citizens, and no means of retribution for cities harmed economically or otherwise by prolonged boil-water notices if it falls under “an act of God.”

Robinson also mentioned Killeen’s almost $1-billion-dollar estimated cost to break away from WCID-1 and build its own water plant.

“What wasn’t stated in that is that they don’t have water rights,” Robinson said in a phone conversation Friday. “WCID has the water rights; we’re providing water to everybody.”

However, that’s not the way Grace sees it.

According to Killeen’s contract with WCID-1, Killeen owns water rights to 18,866 acre feet of water a year which equates to about 6,147.504,966 gallons.

WCID treats and supplies water purchased through the Brazos River Authority to area entities, but the district does not own the water rights on behalf of the cities, according to the former Brazos River Authority board member.

“The only authorized wholesaler of water in the state of Texas is the River Authorities and we went to WCID-1 and we told them that,” Grace said.

Earlier this month, Ricky Garrett, the general manager of WCID-1 told the Herald in an email that WCID has rights from the Brazos River Authority and the district, in turn, allocates the water to Killeen, Copperas Cove, Harker Heights, Belton, Fort Hood, WCID-3 in Nolanville and the 439 Water Supply Corporation.

In his email, Garrett said WCID-1 has several governmental regulations to abide by.

“WCID 1’s role is solely to treat and deliver water and to treat sewer and return the effluent into the designated waterways,” Garrett said. “By the nature of our business, everything we do is subject to the Texas Administrative Code, the Texas Government Code, the Texas Water Code, the EPA, Homeland Security, etc.”

Garrett further said none of the debt it issues for any project is done without the approval of the governing bodies of its customers.

“A simpler way of putting this is we can’t spend anyone’s money without their permission,” Garrett said. “They’re not going to give their permission until we’ve thoroughly demonstrated the need.”

But, according to Cobb & Counsel, water districts contribute to “soaring property taxes” with little transparency or means of oversight.

“Water districts are subject to few financial transparency requirements, meaning the public often has little or no idea about how their tax dollars are being spent,” according to Cobb & Counsel’s 2021 article on the topic.

McAllen case

Last year, the Texas Legislature attempted to make a way for McAllen, a city of 142,557 in South Texas, to take over and dissolve Hidalgo County WCID-3.

However, Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, who represents much of the Killeen area in the Texas House, cautioned comparing that situation to anything involving Bell County WCID-1.

Buckley voted for approval of Senate Bill 2185 — authored by Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen — when it came to the House for a vote on May 26, 2021. Though the bill required a conference committee — meaning the Senate did not accept the House’s amendments — the two sides ultimately settled on a version they liked and Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on June 18, 2021. It went into effect Sept. 1, 2021.

Buckley said last week, however, that the facts surrounding Hidalgo County WCID-3 “are in no way consistent or comparable” to Bell County WCID-1.

“The Hidalgo County water district had a history of financial performance issues, mismanagement, ethical questions pertaining to contracting, and significant governance concerns that dated back many years,” Buckley said via email. “As recently as 2012, a state audit revealed troubling shortcomings in the operations and governance of the Hidalgo County WCID #3.”

In the original bill, before it was amended, the city of McAllen would have taken on all assets, liabilities and fiduciary responsibilities from Hidalgo County WCID-3. It also would have taken on all of the water district’s contracts it has with its customer entities and would have had to ensure it kept water flowing to them.

Buckley explained the amendments that were ultimately agreed upon by both the House and Senate allowed for the preservation of Hidalgo County WCID-3 while instituting stringent new requirements for governance, transparency, and ethics.

From Buckley’s perspective, however, such is not the case for Bell County WCID-1.

“Bell County WCID #1 continues to serve and respond to the ever-changing needs of its customers, and operates as intended since its formation in 1952, and continues to operate through important infrastructure lease agreements with the Department of the Army,” Buckley said. “Its governance structure was modified through a legislative act in 2019 creating geographic districts to better represent their customer base.”

Buckley did not mention Bell County WCID-1’s troubled history with transparency that were exposed in a series of Herald investigative reports in recent years.

The water district had not held an election for its board in 24 years, until May 2018. Before that, board members were quietly appointed from the district’s previous boundary, which was limited to north Killeen. As long as a board member owned property in north Killeen, they could be on the board. WCID-1 also previously allowed developers on its board, a violation of the Texas Water Code.

After the Herald started reporting on the questionable practices, the regional water district voted in December 2018 to quit having elections, but failed to get state approval.

In the aftermath of the Herald’s investigative reports, the local water district expanded its boundaries to include board members from all the cities it provides water to, and became more transparent with its website, elections and other areas.