The legislation includes the state's first statewide drought management plan. Senator Brown stressed to those in attendance that management of our water resources not only in affects those areas commonly associated with severe droughts droughts, but also urban and residential communities such as the West University area dealing with the state's increased water demand. A lot of us have taken for granted that when we turn on the tap clean, abundant water will be available.
Water management is a statewide concern however.
Senate Bill 1 addresses Texas water in the areas of drought response management, water management, marketing, surface water and groundwater supplies, financial assistance to local governments, small communities assistance and water data collection and dissemination. The common element underlying all of the State's water planning efforts is the realization that meeting future water needs will require this full range of management tools controlled by planning at the local level and coordinated at the state level. Many had previously feared that an issue as controversial as water management would not have an optimistic future in the legislature. For decades, statewide water plans have been introduced and failed in the Texas Legislature. With this bill however, Brown credits the tremendous amount of public input garnered in guaranteeing the plan's success.