Learning from the past. Looking towards the future.
The first forty years of the history of the North Texas Municipal Water District is a fascinating story and well documented in our 1994 publication “Gift of Water, Legacy of Service.” The last chapter, titled “Lessons of the Past and a Look Toward the Future,” highlights the importance of our mission.
“To ensure that our children’s children have the quantity and quality of water they need, we have to keep our eyes focused on 2050,” said Loncy Leake, then Chairman of the NTMWD Water Committee and director from Mesquite. “Persistent planning for the future is all that’s allowed our water supply to stay ahead of a constantly increasing demand.”
Today’s District staff and Board of Directors are committed to overcoming the towering challenges that lie ahead, as the District has always been. We have two important near-term projects to provide additional water supplies for our growing region and are seeking federal permits for both: the Trinity River Main Stem Pump Station to divert additional water through our wetlands project for reuse, and the Lower Bois d’Arc Creek Reservoir in Fannin County. The future of North Texas depends on these projects getting approved and built.
In 1990, James Nichols, chairman of Freese & Nichols, Inc., consulting engineers for NTMWD, penned a letter expressing his dire concern that the number of water projects would fail to meet the demand of our growing region in as few as 50 years. We are now halfway through that 50 year period, and we can see that the region has grown even more than predicted – doubling from 800,000 to 1.6 million and due to double again in the next 40 years. This is why it is imperative that projects, like the Bois d’Arc Lake and the Trinity River Main Stem Pump Station, are approved and built as soon as possible so we can meet our growing demand for water services.
“We need vision for the future… [and] we need perseverance for both the future and the present,” said Leake in the closing chapter of our history book. “We have to keep a ‘worst-case scenario’ in mind, even during wet cycles like the one we’ve been experiencing lately, when none of our cities are even using the minimum amount of water under their contracts.” Leake’s words ring even truer now than ever before, reminding us to plan ahead for the dramatic swings in North Texas weather patterns.
The future will always present formidable obstacles, but it also provides opportunity for those who are willing and able to make the climb. As Truett Smith, one of the NTMWD founders from Wylie, might say: “Bring on the next forty years!”
Dec. 2015 Executive Director’s message (Tom Kula)