PRESIDIO COUNTY — The county’s Utility System Board — at present, the exact makeup of the Commissioners Court — met Wednesday morning along with residents representing the small water systems scattered across the county to bring more focus to next steps to ensure these communities have tested water wells and a process in place to keep their systems safe, financially viable, and mechanically afloat.
”I hope we can start moving forward with some of these issues,” County Judge Joe Porttillo said Tuesday before the meeting. Portillo said he would be unable to attend the meeting because he was traveling to Washington, D.C., on county business. “These are issues that, in the past, the county court hasn’t really been as involved in. But water is probably one of the most pressing issues that we have.”
To meet these goals, according to county officials, the board needs to be set up with one board member from each of the county’s small water system corporations — Redford, Ruidosa, Candelaria, Shafter and possibly Las Pampas, which has yet to form a corporation. That has been discussed for months with no action. Also discussed at meetings for more than a year and a half has been small systems pooling revenue to hire someone that could do testing and monitoring for more than one system.
It appeared that the meeting was going to adjourn without much progress on any of these ideas when Shafter resident Randall Cater spoke up. “Shafter is willing to provide someone for this board. Looking at the speed of progress, what comes to mind is ‘glacial.’”
Trey Gerfers, who is managing water grants for the county, then set a plan in motion. The Utility Systems Board would meet again on July 10, and each water system should have a person ready to serve on the board to be appointed and replace the county judge and commissioners. Gerfers said he would also seek help from Water Finance Exchange, contracted by the county for water bond administration, to see if they can do financial assessments of the water systems. Finally, the county would try to reconnect with Communities Unlimited, a nonprofit that assists small communities with the development of water systems. That nonprofit had been active in meeting with Shafter residents last year, but never took the initiative to help with what the town was asking — forming its corporation, paying expensive filing fees and helping organize meetings.
The Utility Systems Board was set up to receive and administer $4.6 million in grant money dedicated to improving county water systems. The most pressing need for a new board made up of members from the water systems, according to Portillo, is to get communities in Candelaria and Shafter out of boil-water notices and get Candelaria in compliance with requirements of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which currently has fines of more than $5,000 levied against Candelaria’s water system. Records also show that the Candelaria Water Supply Corporation forfeited its corporate status with the state in 2014, and its IRS charitable status has been on “auto revoke” since 2011 for not filing 990 tax returns.
Portillo and Gerfers made it clear that the county is still willing to assist, but hopefully a new board with committed members will keep spurring progress. “This has to come from the communities,” Gerfers said.