Texas Water Development Board The Texas Water Development Board's (TWDB) mission is To provide leadership, planning, financial

assistance, information, and education for the conservation and responsible development of water for Texas. Their mission is a vital part of Texas' overall vision and its mission and goals which relate to maintaining the viability of the state's natural resources, health and economic development. To accomplish its goals of planning for the state's water resources and for providing affordable water and wastewater services, the TWDB provides water planning, data collection and dissemination, financial assistance and technical assistance services to the citizens of Texas. The tremendous population growth that the state has and will continue to experience, and the continual threat of severe drought, only intensify the need for the TWDB to accomplish its goals in an effective and efficient manner.

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) was created in 1957. It currently

Provides loans to local governments for water supply projects; water quality projects including wastewater treatment, municipal solid waste management and nonpoint source pollution control; flood control projects; agricultural water conservation projects; and groundwater district creation expenses Provides grants and loans for the water and wastewater needs of the state's economically distressed areas Provides agricultural water conservation funding and water-related research and planning grants Supports regions in developing their regional water plans that will be incorporated into a statewide water plan for the orderly development, management and conservation of the state's water resources by studying Texas' surface and groundwater resources Collects data and conducts studies concerning the fresh-water needs of the state's bays and estuaries Administers the Texas Water Bank, which facilitates the transfer, sale or lease of water and water rights throughout the state, and administers the Texas Water Trust, where water rights are held for environmental flow maintenance purposes Maintains a centralized data bank of information on the state's natural resources called the Texas Natural Resources Information System and manages the Strategic Mapping Program, a Texas-based, public and private sector cost-sharing program to develop consistent, large-scale computerized base maps describing basic geographic features of Texas.