Brazos River Authority updates board on Lake Whitney reallocation; approves up to $500,000 for Jones & Fortuna legal services
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Summary
Staff updated directors on a Corps of Engineers study that could reallocate roughly 184,000 acre-feet of Lake Whitney storage to water supply and requested authorization to continue using Jones & Fortuna for legal strategy and potential litigation up to $500,000; the board approved the authorization.
Brad Benoit, chief operations officer, briefed the board on the Lake Whitney reallocation study July 28, describing work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that produced a tentatively selected plan to increase Brazos River Authority storage at Lake Whitney.
Benoit said the tentatively selected plan would change the allocation of the conservation pool and lower the top of the power-head reserve, increasing the Authority—s storage in the conservation and power-head zones from about 57,000 acre-feet currently to roughly 241,000 acre-feet total (a net increase of about 184,000 acre-feet). He cautioned that the added storage is measured as storage capacity; the firm yield and an associated water-right permit would determine how much water the authority could contract for, which Benoit estimated could be between about 50,000 and 100,000 acre-feet.
Benoit outlined the study timeline: the draft report and the tentatively selected plan were released for public comment July 21; a public meeting is scheduled for Aug. 14 in Hillsboro; Corps agency technical review and command validation steps are expected through the coming year, with a possible chief—s report by next summer.
Benoit also requested board authorization to continue using Jones and Fortuna LP for legal strategy and services on the project in an amount not to exceed $500,000. He said Jones and Fortuna have provided legal and technical-strategy support since the project—s start and that the requested amount includes fees already incurred (about $200,000 to date). Jones and Fortuna partners Louis Jones and John Fortuna described their experience with Corps reallocation projects and said their team has technical and litigation experience relevant to the study.
Director questions focused on likely costs for acquiring storage under Corps pricing and on stakeholder engagement to reduce litigation risk. Benoit said Corps —updated cost of storage— formulas could produce an acquisition cost north of $50 million and possibly near $100 million, but he contrasted that with multi-billion-dollar alternatives such as building new reservoirs. He said there has been engagement with the hydropower sponsor during the study and staff hopes to pursue negotiations or settlements where feasible before litigation. The board voted to authorize continuation of Jones and Fortuna's services up to $500,000 (motion by Director Huber; second by Director Wayne).
