The board of directors for the Sulphur River Basin Authority will meet today to discuss the letter they received last week from the Army Corps of Engineers stating an additional $2.796 million and 30 months were needed to complete a study on the possibility of raising Wright Patman Lake to meet the state's growing water needs.
"This is going to be a really important meeting because of recent events," SRBA Board President Mike Sandefur said.
SRBA and the corps are 50/50 partners in the three-year study, which was set to produce a Tentatively Selected Plan in December. That plan would have included the level at which the corps recommends the lake to be raised, but the letter also stated the corps' 2016-17 budget did not include funding to continue the study.
"Although this letter from the corps looks like a bad thing, I think it's a good thing because it gives us a wonderful opportunity to include Riverbend and Texarkana as full participants in the process," Sandefur said.
The board will discuss the possibility of working with Riverbend Water Resources District on a study in Wright Patman and setting a time to meet with Texarkana, Texas, city representatives to address the lake's sedimentation issue and other water topics.
SRBA's board identified working with Riverbend and the city as possible goals during its strategic planning session last month. At that discussion, Riverbend Executive Director and CEO Liz Fazio Hale said Riverbend was looking to do joint projects with SRBA. Also, Texarkana, Texas, City Manager John Whitson said the city's meeting with SRBA was something that still needed to happen.
"We all believe that the health of the basin is an important task to address," Fazio Hale said. "I think how we go about working together is yet to be determined. There are a lot of details that will need to be worked out and all of the stakeholders have to be comfortable in moving in that direction."
SRBA has been reorganizing after extreme recommendations made by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. The suggestions included finding local funding sources and working with local stakeholders, including Riverbend and the city of Texarkana. SRBA's sole source of funding is the Joint Commission for Program Development, an entity comprised of the city of Dallas, the city of Irving, North Texas Municipal Water District, Tarrant Regional Water District and the Upper Trinity Water District.
Other agenda items include improvements to SRBA's website, the status of the Clean Rivers Program and Region D's water planning group.
The meeting will be at 1 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Civic Center, 1800 N. Jefferson St., Mount Pleasant, Texas.