Water alliance seeks to become ‘agency’

By Joe and Rosanne Fohn

Anvil Herald Reporters

Medina County, four city governments and four water supply districts serving unincorporated areas are seeking to become a public utility agency to make it easier to obtain state funding for additional water supplies and storage capacity.

The proposed Medina County Utility District would include Medina County itself, the cities of Hondo, Castroville, Devine and La Coste, plus water districts that serve unincorporated areas including D’Hanis, Yancey and large portions of fast-growing East Medina County. Each utility’s board may choose whether to join, but each member’s board would remain independent in its daily operation. 

“There’s no taxing. This is strictly to buy stuff and do stuff,” said County Judge Keith Lutz, who added that he hopes the new district might be put into action in 60 days.  

According to Lutz, the district is an outgrowth of a two-year-old initiative that resulted in formation of the Medina County Regional Water Alliance.

The alliance has investigated grants for projects aimed at enhancing water storage and conservation, plus alternative water sources such as a desalination project proposed by the Nueces River Authority. However, Lutz said grants from the Texas Water Development Board tend to go to specific districts. 

“When (the alliance) brought on a non-profit grant writer to apply for grants, we learned that we had very limited opportunities for funding,” said Scooter Mangold, general manager of Yancey Water Supply Corp., who has been leading the alliance. 

“Being a public utility agency will allow us to apply for a much larger pool of grants.”

The county, municipalities and water purveyors will vote on joining the public utility agency in February.

The first project the alliance is seeking is funding to create a water storage system in the Trinity Aquifer. In wet years, each entity can pump all the water they have the rights to into joint storage. In dry years, they can pump out the water they need in proportion to their share.

“The state has known we have water issues for several years,” Mangold said. Major legislation for water funding was passed in 2023. In November 2025, voters passed Proposition 4 creating a constitutional amendment to dedicate part of the revenue from state sales and use taxes into the Texas Water Fund.

Mangold said the agency would be applying for these funds as well as funds available from corporations.

Lutz added, “We want to convert to a public utility agency to be able to accept and manage those grant monies.”