Region C WPG Presents Draft 2026 Water Plan at May 19 Hearing, Seeks Public Input Now

The Region C Water Planning Group (RCWPG) will hold a public hearing on Monday, May 19, 2025, 1:00 p.m. to take public comments on a draft version of the 2026 Region C Water Plan. The hearing will take place at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, 616 Six Flags Drive, Arlington, Texas 76011, in the Centerpoint Two Building, 1^st Floor Transportation Council Room.

The draft Regional Water Plan, known formally as the Initially Prepared Plan (IPP), is available for review now on the Region C website, www.regioncwater.org. It recommends more than 170 water management strategies to meet North Central Texas’ essential water needs through 2080, as the dynamic, 16-county region’s population nearly doubles over the next 50 years. Nearly 45% of the new water supplies called for in the plan will come from water conservation and reuse efforts, underscoring the regional commitment to being a statewide and national leader for innovative, responsible water use.

The RCWPG approved the IPP in February 2025 and submitted it to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) in March 2025. The public has until 5 p.m. on July 18, 2025, to review the IPP and offer comments, which will be considered during the plan revision process later this summer.

“Input from regional stakeholders is vital to the success of regional water planning,” said Dan Buhman, Chair of the RCWPG and General Manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District. “Texas residents, communities and businesses face a future that will include dramatic growth, an ever-present risk of severe drought and the inescapable need for water. Water is essential to preserving our quality of life and fueling the state’s continued prosperity.”

“We must also be thoughtful water users and seek out forward-thinking solutions,” continued Buhman. “That’s why our plan calls for a wide variety of strategies over the next 50 years, including a major emphasis on water conservation and reuse, which would meet nearly one-third of future water needs. We need to hear now from Region C’s many people, communities and companies about how we’re planning to meet their future water needs. We know that a failure to plan properly or develop new supplies before they’re needed could cost us all tremendously.”

Copies of the IPP are also available in each county clerk’s office and in at least one public library in each of Region C’s 16 counties. These locations are listed on the Documents page of the website.

The May 19 hearing provides an opportunity to provide comments verbally or in writing. Written comments may also be submitted in three other ways from now until 5 p.m. on July 18, 2025:

Via the Region C website’s Public Comment form
Via email to info@regioncwater.org
Via mail to: Kevin Ward, RCWPG Administrator, c/o Trinity River Authority, P.O. Box 60, Arlington, Texas 76004

The Planning Group will consider and begin to address all public and state agency comments at its next public meeting in September 2025. The Planning Group must submit its final 2026 Region C Water Plan to the TWDB no later than Oct. 20, 2025.

Relative to other parts of Texas where agricultural watering and other water uses are more intense, Region C uses far less than its proportionate share of the state’s water. Despite having 26% of the state’s population and 30% of the state’s economic activity, Region C accounts for less than 10% of Texas’ annual water use, according to the latest available (2021) figures from the TWDB.

Over the coming years, Region C’s existing water supplies will not be able to meet the growing demands of the region. By 2080, dry-year water demands in Region C will reach 3 million acre-feet of water annually. With currently available regional water supplies at 1.7 million acre-feet of water annually, the region faces a potential annual shortfall of over 1.3 million acre-feet by 2080, absent development of new water supplies.

Sources of Water Available to Region C as of 2080

Under the plan, Region C’s 2080 water demand would be met – and a reasonable surplus would be available for unforeseen contingencies – through the following water management strategy types:

38% – Current Supplies (not including reuse)
33% – Water Conservation and Reuse
17% – New Surface Water (reservoirs and run-of-river projects)
10% – New Connections to Existing Supply Sources
2% – New Groundwater

The total cost of implementing the draft plan’s recommended strategies is over $49 billion. The new draft plan includes only two new on-channel reservoirs and two off-channel reservoirs, compared to more than 25 reservoirs that were built to supply Region C’s water over the previous 60 years.

About the Region C Water Planning Group

The RCWPG is one of 16 regional water planning groups selected by the TWDB to help develop a comprehensive state water plan for Texas over the next 50 years. Each water planning group is responsible for preparing and adopting a regional water plan for its area. The RCWPG is made up of 22 members representing a variety of interest groups. Region C includes all or part of 16 counties in North Central Texas: Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Freestone, Grayson, Henderson (Trinity River Basin portion), Jack, Kaufman, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant and Wise. For more information, visit www.regioncwater.org.

Region C Letter to Region D Regarding “Interregional Conflict” Meeting Agenda Item

On April 8, 2025, the Region C Water Planning Group sent a letter to the North East Texas (Region D) Regional Water Planning Group, in advance of Region D’s April 9 public meeting, whose agenda included a potential action item “identifying a potential interregional conflict with the recently submitted Initially Prepared Plans.” Region C’s letter requested that Region D refrain from asserting an “interregional conflict” between the 2026 Region C and Region D Water Plans (both of which are currently in draft form and open to public input), so Texas can continue planning to meet the substantial future water needs of millions of the state’s residents, businesses and communities. The full letter is available here. For more information about this topic, please see Chapter 10.5.1 of Region C’s Initially Prepared Plan, available for review here (see pages 977-981 of the PDF)

2026 Initially Prepared Region C Water Plan

At its February 24, 2025 meeting, the Region C Regional Water Planning Group approved its 2026 Initially Prepared Region C Water Plan. Region C also authorized its administrative agent and technical consultant to submit the IPP by March 3, 2025. The IPP was submitted to the Texas Water Development Board on March 3, 2025.

Quick Links to the 2026 Initially Prepared Region C Water Plan:

Lake Ralph Hall Reaches New Construction Landmark

Source: The Cross Timbers Gazette

Bridges over Lake Ralph Hall — a future reservoir that will provide water for part of North Texas, including Denton County — is now open to traffic.

Last month, Upper Trinity Regional Water District celebrated the completion of the Hwy 34 bridges over the North Sulphur River and Merrill Creek, according to a district news release. The new, 1.1-mile-long North Sulphur River bridge near Ladonia includes a special walkway for pedestrians and bicyclists. In addition to that main bridge and the much shorter Merrill Creek Bridge, Upper Trinity and its contractors rerouted a section of FM 1550 to accommodate the new lake’s shoreline.

“This is a significant landmark in the construction of Lake Ralph Hall,” said Larry Patterson, Upper Trinity’s Executive Director. “We are incredibly grateful for the support and collaboration of all who have been involved—especially Flatiron Construction, who built these bridges over the last two years.”

The bridges opened to traffic on Monday.

Lake Ralph Hall will be a 7,600-acre reservoir in southeast Fannin County. It is expected to be completed in 2025 and be delivering water by 2026 to the Upper Trinity Regional Water District and member communities. It will be one of the state’s biggest reservoir projects in nearly 30 years, according to a water district news release. Located on the North Sulphur River in Fannin County just north of the city of Ladonia, Lake Ralph Hall will provide an additional 35 million gallons daily of water and 19 MGD of reuse water for the residents of Denton, Collin and Fannin counties. UTRWD currently serves more than 29 cities, towns and utilities supplying drinking water to close to 300,000 customers.

Massive Pipeline Provides Water From Three Lakes to North Texas Area

The 150-mile, $2.3 billion Integrated Pipeline project, or IPL, is a joint water supply project between Dallas Water Utilities and the Tarrant Regional Water District. After more than a decade of design and construction, the joint section of the IPL is now operational as of May 2022. The pipeline connects to existing water supplies in East Texas and adds significant water supply capacity to the regional water system.

A lot of planning and a little serendipity went into making the IPL a reality. Turns out DWU and TRWD each had separate plans to bring water from East Texas into the Metroplex. And both entities were in the process of developing their plans when they realized that they had similar timelines and that their respective projects would be built in roughly the same locations. So, instead of building two pipelines, DWU and TRWD decided to build one joint pipeline. The move saves taxpayers more than a billion dollars in capital and energy costs over the life of the project.

For more information, see this recent TRWD news item or see a recent Texas Water Development Board video here.