Texas public power utility New Braunfels Utilities, the City of New Braunfels, Texas, and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority on Aug. 15 launched an interagency program to collaboratively manage water resources.
The program’s launch “comes after several years of planning by the three agencies and additional partners who identified the primary challenges facing New Braunfels’ water resources and the strategic and actionable ways the agencies could work together, and with the community, to address these challenges,” said a news release related to the unveiling of One Water New Braunfels.
This work is captured in the One Water New Braunfels Roadmap and additional details are provided in the One Water New Braunfels Roadmap Report.
One Water is a globally recognized integrated approach to water planning that is being adopted by communities across the country, the news release said.
The Water Research Foundation defines One Water as an integrated planning and implementation approach to managing finite water resources for long-term resilience and reliability, meeting not only the economic needs but also community and ecosystem needs. The One Water methodology requires thinking of water as a single system and recognizes that all water flows -- including stormwater, rainwaters, and wastewater -- are viable water resources.
One Water New Braunfels was made official through action by NBU Board of Trustees and GBRA Board of Directors earlier this summer and a recent vote by the New Braunfels City Council to approve an interagency agreement.
The agreement outlines the governance and management of the One Water New Braunfels program and establishes an advisory council and a working group responsible for continued development and implementation of the New Braunfels One Water Roadmap.
A Program Coordinator will manage day to day operations of the program, support the efforts of the advisory council and working group, and serve as primary liaison with the community at large.
