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| Panhandle Water Planning Area |
The Panhandle Regional Planning Commission is honored to have the opportunity to work with the state-mandated Regional Water Planning efforts in this area. The PRPC, through the Local Government Services (LGS) Staff, provides many services in the area of Regional Water Planning. The PRPC has been involved in Regional Water Planning since the inception of Senate Bill 1 in 1997. Senate Bill 1 mandated that the sate of Texas undertake a comprehensive water planning process designed to assist water users and providers in planning for and meeting future water demands and needs. That process was delegated to the regions throughout the state to accomplish.
The Panhandle Water Planning Group was formed and charged with preparing the regional long-range plan for the Panhandle. Now completed and approved by the Texas Water Development Board, this plan addresses the water needs of the 21 area counties within the Panhandle Water Planning Area and coordinates those efforts with the regional water planning processes affecting the remaining five Panhandle counties. This plan was one of only two in the state recommended for approval without amendment, revision, or change. The Planning Commission has been fortunate to have been selected by the Panhandle Water Planning Group as the Designated Political Subdivision for the planning efforts and have also been selected to assist in the process by conducting the primary Public Information efforts.
Work will now begin to develop the five-year update to the original plan. This update will be based on the first plan, but will have certain additional elements to address new legislative requirements or to address identified conditions in the region that were either not present in the first plan or that did not receive a sufficient amount of detailed study. Water quality will be a featured element in this plan as will certain environmental items that were not included in the first plan. In addition to these two new items, all water user groups will be re-evaluated.
