Fort Bend County, TX – Fort Bend County Commissioners Court unanimously passed a resolution of support that provides Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties with full voting representation on the Gulf Coast Water Authority (GCWA) Board of Directors.
Sen. Joan Huffman filed Senate Bill 683 to add Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties on the GCWA board, an agency responsible for conveying surface water throughout the region. A companion bill — House Bill 3621 — was filed by Rep. Dennis Bonnen in the Texas House of Representatives.
The GCWA owns and operates canals (i.e., rivers, creeks and man-made channels) that provide surface water in Galveston, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties. The management and control of the authority is vested in its board of seven directors who are currently appointed by the Commissioners Court of Galveston County. Since its creation in 1965, the authority has grown in both capacity and customer base, and the authority no longer supplies water to just the citizens, municipalities and industries of Galveston County. Today, 40 percent of the authority’s total contracted water volume is from outside Galveston County in Brazoria and Fort Bend counties.
SB 683 adds two members to the board of directors of GCWA, bringing the total number of board members to nine. One new member would be appointed by the Commissioners Court of Brazoria County, and one new member would be appointed by the Commissioners Court of Fort Bend County. Fort Bend and Brazoria counties representation, as proposed would only be 22 percent of the board where nearly 40 percent of the GCWA’s total contracted water volume is from these two non-voting member counties. Fort Bend County strongly supports the appointment of the new directors as a simple matter of fairness and equity.
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