An impromptu town hall meeting at the PointBank Community Center on April 30 gave community members another look at the status of the White Oak Municipal Utility District proposal, which has been contested since early in its development.
Blair Roberts opened the forum with some background, before giving the floor to Upper Trinity Regional Water District board secretary Allen McCracken to discuss the issue of Mustang Special Utility District’s ability to get water to that many homes followed by County Commissioner Ryan Williams, who laid out the next step for stopping the MUD.
“The Lake Ray Roberts P&Z is going to be our biggest lean to on this particular situation,” Williams said. “The reason is it actually states what they can and can’t do in those areas.”
Three Pilot Point citizens sit on that board, and the entirety are incentivized to vote in favor of the commissioner’s court as they can be removed at any time.
“They’re going to come to that P&Z and ask for a variance, and the P&Z is going to say, ‘Absolutely not, but here’s what we will allow,’” Williams said. “They may allow down to 4-acre lots with in the Lake Ray Roberts zoning. Then that goes to the commissioner’s court, and we’re obviously going to say no. This is what it’s designed for, and we’ll approve it at that, but nothing less.”
Williams explained from there it could become a legal matter if the developer pushes the issue, and the state of the MUD will hinge on the result of the following lawsuit.
“Unfortunately, that’s our tax dollars being spent inappropriately in my mind, but we don’t have a choice but to defend our citizens and ourselves,” Williams said. “Believe me, we will be fighting as hard as we possibly can at the county level to make sure what we’ve put in place at the Lake Ray Roberts zoning area stays put.”
The water issue and the general lack of it that McCracken introduced at the top of the meeting became a larger topic of conversation than the MUD as the meeting persisted.
“We have a problem with supply water in North Texas,” McCracken said. “Our population has outstripped our water supply. Mustang SUD is the exclusive water provider for that particular property. Mustang has currently maxed out its water wells, and Mustang is currently having to purchase water from Upper Trinity. Upper Trinity has maxed out all of its plants.”
Mustang is relying on Lake Ralph Hall to solve the problem, McCracken explained otherwise.
“We expect to be able to impound that lake next year, and within two years the lake will be full,” McCracken said. “The challenge is, when that lake is full and is returning 100% of the water to Denton County, that’s only 50 million gallons a day. Mustang is asking for 11 million. Upper Trinity has 24 different members, so that water has to be evenly allocated.”
He then shared a forecast Upper Trinity asked for from their members.
“What’s even scarier is, we sat down with our members and asked them to give us a forecast of what your water needs are going to be within three years on planned development,” McCracken said. “That number was 100 million gallons a day which means we’re going to be facing a 50 million gallon a day shortfall. We’re going to see developments start and go bankrupt because there will not be water for them.”
