(The Center Square) – A river authority in central Texas has been awarded a $29 million grant to strengthen flood monitoring systems while a neighboring river authority is under state legislative scrutiny.
The state comptroller’s Broadband Development Office has awarded a $29 million grant to the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities and strengthen flood-monitoring systems in Central Texas.
The LCRA produces and delivers electric power to the lower Colorado River region. It operates six dams in Central Texas, which form six lakes comprising the Highland Lakes. Two of the lakes, Buchanan and Travis, provide the region’s water supply reservoirs serving more than one million people. The lakes also provide the water supply for businesses, the agriculture industry and wildlife in the lower Colorado River basin, the LCRA explains.
The LCRA also manages a public parks system and supports community development by issuing more than $1 million in grants among other programs. It operates primarily on revenue it generates from electricity . It does not receive state appropriations and does not levy taxes.
The grant is designed to help internet service providers (ISPs) better reach rural Texans and help the LCRA expand and harden its flood-monitoring infrastructure.
“This is exactly what smart infrastructure investment looks like,” Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said. “The July 4, 2025, floods were a sobering reminder that real-time data and reliable communications save lives. This project will both strengthen those capabilities and deliver daily broadband access to communities along the Lower Colorado.”
In 2021, the state legislature passed SB 632, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law, authorizing the LCRA to develop and operate middle-mile broadband infrastructure. The goal was to close the digital divide in rural Texas, where in many areas there is still no cell phone reception or wifi. The goal was for the LCRA to build and operate a core fiber network and for ISPs to connect to it and deliver service directly to consumers.
LCRA general manager Phil Wilson said the grant “helps us do two important things at once. We can make LCRA’s fiber network accessible to internet providers who want to serve rural customers, and we can expand connectivity for flood monitoring systems across the region. We already have the infrastructure in place that can be expanded to meet the growing demand. Now we’re putting it to work for both broadband access and public safety.”
Grant funds will help improve network access points for ISPs and pass savings onto customers; upgrade and expand tower sites and connectivity for flood-monitoring stations; and extend fiber capacity into rural areas where coverage gaps remain, the LCRA says.
Unlike the LCRA, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority (UGRA) has come under scrutiny from the state legislature after the July 4 flash flood disaster in the Hill Country.
After nine years of proposing plans and applying for grants, which were denied, the UGRA didn’t implement a river monitoring system even though it had the funds to do so, The Center Square reported.
If the UGRA had used the funds fully available in its budget to implement a plan it had commissioned years earlier, the UGRA could have installed sensors delivering real time data accessible 24/7 to monitor river levels, it acknowledged in a legislative hearing. Alerts could have then been sent to Kerry County officials and residents. This never happened.
To date, no one at the UGRA has resigned or been fired, including board members appointed by Abbott.
There are dozens of river authorities in Texas, most of which were created by the Texas legislature in the 1930s. Most of the dams along these systems were built under President Franklin D. Roosevelt through his Great New Deal. Initial federal funding was secured by then Texas Democratic Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson. The dams were later used to provide hydroelectric power. Johnson is credited with first bringing electricity to the Hill Country.
Over time, many dams and hydroelectric power plants have failed, leading to either closures or construction and renovation.
Many dams that were washed out by floods beginning in the 1930s and 1940s are located in Flash Flood Alley. The region covers 27 counties and the cities of Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, The Center Square reported.
Texas leads the U.S. with the most flood-related deaths by far. Roughly one in six Texans live or work in flood hazard areas, according to Texas’ first State Flood Plan released last year, The Center Square reported.
Under Abbott, the legislature established a Texas Water Development Board to evaluate flood response and solutions. In 2023, Texans overwhelmingly voted for a constitutional amendment to create a $1 billion Texas water fund to help finance water projects administered by the board.
