{"id":1420484,"date":"2025-06-19T08:16:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T13:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1420484"},"modified":"2025-06-21T02:32:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T07:32:36","slug":"east-texas-senator-watches-as-texas-governor-signs-water-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1420484","title":{"rendered":"State Rep. Harris watches as Texas Governor signs water bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-19-081059-e1750338865882-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1420485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-19-081059-e1750338865882-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-19-081059-e1750338865882-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-19-081059-e1750338865882.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>TYLER &#8211; Gov. Abbott signed Senate Bill 7 and Joint House Resolution 7, what he calls is the largest generational investment in the states\u2019 water infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Texas is growing but the water supply is not keeping up, the 89th legislature invested $20 billion to fund water projects. A part of the $20 billion investment is to fix old, decaying and costly infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done with this legislation impacts generations of Texas,\u201d State Representative Cody Harris said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe lose about 88 billion gallons of water a year because of broken, busted and aged pipes. We have an across-the-board urgency to make sure that we address the water issue. The good news is we had the legislature step up and get that job done with the largest water law in the history of the great state of Texas,\u201d Abbott said.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The second part of the money would identify new sources for water. Representative Harris said East Texas water is not for others to take.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we\u2019re celebrating this and the accomplishment that this is, I\u2019m ready to dig my heels in and fight like a mad dog on that same time,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-one high-capacity wells are currently being reviewed for permits in Anderson County. The wells could extract 10 billion gallons of water a year.<\/p>\n<p>Harris said there are other avenues to be explored, so all of Texas can prosper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will be taking a hard look at this interim. What changes need to be made at the statute level to make sure that this never is as a threat of happening again?\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n<p>In November, Texas voters will have the option to approve an annual $1 billion deposit (HJR 7) for the next 20 years and prevent the precious water resource from drying up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TYLER &#8211; Gov. Abbott signed Senate Bill 7 and Joint House Resolution 7, what he calls is the largest generational investment in the states\u2019 water infrastructure. Texas is growing but the water supply is not keeping up, the 89th legislature invested $20 billion to fund water projects. A part of the $20 billion investment is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1420484\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">State Rep. Harris watches as Texas Governor signs water bill<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1420670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-19-081059-e1750338865882-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 22:22:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-19-081059-e1750338865882-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1420484"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1420877,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420484\/revisions\/1420877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1420670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1420484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1420484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1420484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}