Perry calls Lake Ringgold 'an option' for area's future water needs
A man who wields a lot of power in Texas water resource development said he is taking a neutral stance for the moment on Wichita Falls’ efforts to build Lake Ringgold in Clay County.
Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, chairs the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs and co-chairs the State Water Implementation Fund.
He told attendees at a town hall meeting in Wichita Falls Thursday that Lake Ringgold is an option.
More: Judge sticks by his guns in opposing Lake Ringgold
“Everyone needs to be talking about options,” he said.
The city applied for a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2017 to build the new reservoir. The decision is still pending.
“I applaud any city that has the vision and forethought to plan ahead for water supplies,” Perry said. “Anybody who’s talking about new supply development is a winner.”
More: Wichita Falls fires back at judge's opposition to Lake Ringgold
He told the Times Record News separately the city needs to keep doing what it’s doing with Lake Ringgold, but in the meantime the state will be working on things that may or may not be part of the Lake Ringgold conversation.
“The state will have options you currently don’t see or know about that I’m working through that may be just as good or better,” he said.
More: City pursues Lake Ringgold construction "as fast and quickly as we can"
A state administrative law judge recommended the TCEQ deny the city’s application to build Lake Ringgold in part because the reservoir would hold more water than the city needs. Perry doesn’t buy that argument.
“As far as excess water, there is no such thing. So, if your city doesn’t need it, I promise you somebody in the region will,” he said.
He promised he would inform Wichita Falls leadership as soon as he knows whether Lake Ringgold is a necessity.
“I don’t know yet,” the senator said.
Perry said water supply is not an issue confined to the Wichita Falls area.
“It’s not just Wichita Falls. It’s every place in Texas, including those areas that say they have a lot of water, so it’s time to have a statewide kind of oversight,” he said. “As long as your tap came on today, the average person out there would assume they have no water issues and that’s actually not accurate."
He said reservoirs, such as Lake Ringgold, are “a piece of” the solution.
“There’s no silver bullet,” he said.
Perry said Texas has 21 or 22 reservoirs in the state water plan.
“Of that, probably, realistically half of those are going to happen,” he said.
Perry told people at the meeting his job is to create a more coordinated approach to water planning in Texas “that truly connects 254 counties.”
Perry’s 28th State Senate District includes much of Wichita County including a portion of Wichita Falls. He joined 69th District State Rep. James Frank at the forum, where discussions also included health care, border security and taxes.
Frank said the Legislature takes credit for a $12 billion property tax cut in its latest session and increased the homestead exemption to homeowners from $40,000 to $100,000. He said lawmakers spent four special sessions on school choice but did not pass it.
As Chairman of the House Human Service Committee, Frank said he doesn’t know of any part of the state budget that has grown faster in the past decade than mental health dollars.
“You can spend tons of money on mental health, but determining what’s actually succeeding is really tough. Show me what will work and we’ll put more money there,” he said.
On border security, Perry said if the federal government is not going to do its job, the state must do it. He said in addition to people on the terrorist watch list migrating into Texas, the state is incurring medical costs for migrants, costs for educating migrant children, and costs related to migrants' interaction with the criminal justice system.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Perry calls Lake Ringgold 'an option' for area's future water needs
