EPIC Comments on Texas' $1B Water Supply and Infrastructure Grant Implementation Plan

waterpublic comments
Written By Danielle Goshen

In February 2026, the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) submitted public comments to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) on the proposed Water Supply and Infrastructure Grants Implementation Plan. Under HB500, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2025, $1.038 billion was appropriated from the general revenue fund to the TWDB for this new one time grant program.

Drawing on analysis from EPIC’s Texas Community Water System Prioritization Tool and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Funding Tracker, EPIC offered three core recommendations to help ensure grant funding is aligned with statewide need and delivers the greatest public benefit.

EPIC’s recommendations include:

  • Align total funding targets with population served.

    • Revise population-based funding targets so each size tier receives a share of total program funds proportional to the number of Texans it serves, helping ensure investments maximize statewide benefit and avoid systematically disadvantaging systems serving large portions of the population.

  • Revise per-project funding caps to better reflect observed project demand.

    • Adjust per-project caps—particularly for small and mid-sized systems—so they more closely align with observed DWSRF project costs, such as by benchmarking caps to the 75th percentile of recent project demand, with targeted flexibility for higher-poverty large systems.

  • Ensure comparability between retail and wholesale scoring.

    • Align retail and wholesale prioritization criteria by using income-based metrics for both, preventing structural scoring bias and better reflecting downstream affordability impacts on customers.

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Danielle Goshen

Danielle is the Senior Water Infrastructure Policy Analyst at EPIC. Prior to joining EPIC in 2024, Danielle worked on National Wildlife Federation's Texas Coast and Water Program as their Policy Specialist/Counsel where she collaborated with government, industry, and NGO stakeholders to improve water policy across Texas. Prior to her work at NWF, Danielle was the Water Policy Specialist at Galveston Bay Foundation. She attended the University of Toronto for her Honours Bachelor's degrees in Environmental Geography and Environmental Studies, with a minor in Geographic Information Studies. Danielle later earned her J.D. at the University of Georgia School of Law, where she was president of the Environmental Law Association. During her time at Georgia Law, Danielle interned at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 office and served as a Georgia Sea Grant Legal Fellow working on coastal resiliency policy.

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