(The Center Square) – Texas state lawmakers plan to reevaluate the purpose of the Upper Guadeloupe River Authority (UGRA) after it was revealed that after nine years, no river monitoring system was implemented even though it had the funds to do so.
At a state legislative hearing in Kerr County on Thursday, Bill Rector, president of the UGRA Board of Directors, said that the UGRA had reserve funds to pay for a system it wanted to implement but instead applied for third party grants that were denied since 2016.
The UGRA monitors the Guadeloupe River in Kerr County and flood gages, and shares the data with the U.S. Geological Service and National Weather Service. The UGRA attempted to implement flood prediction warning systems and studies and applied for grants through the Texas Department of Emergency Management in 2017, 2018 and 2019, which were denied, he said. It also participated in a flood plan, but no outside funding came, he said. The UGRA is funded by taxpayers.
In 2023, the UGRA “renewed its focus on flood warning strategic planning,” Rector said, invited a hydrologist, “resolved to develop software solutions” and add additional rain stream gages. A plan was presented to the board last November, which was approved. It also applied for a Texas Water Development Fund grant to cover half of the cost and only received funding for 5%. The board rejected that proposal.
Rector said the board spent nine years applying for outside grants to not implement a flood warning system while continuing to collect taxpayer money. This year, Rector said, they realized “time was of the essence” and proceeded with reserve funds to begin the project. It began June 4, one month before the catastrophic flood that killed 108 people in Kerr County, including 37 children.
Had the project been implemented years earlier, new sensors would have been in place delivering real time data accessible 24/7 to the county emergency manager, Rector said. The emergency coordinator would have been able to monitor river levels and send alerts to residents. This didn’t happen.
State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said, “This line of questioning is very disturbing, … we’ve had little girls in bunks, we have people dying, and we’ve got officials that are charged with the responsibility for their protection who are in their beds, they’re sick, they’re waiting for somebody else,” referring to the county officials who were absent when flood waters came, The Center Square reported.
“But I’m more disturbed with your comments,” Darby said to Rector, noting the UGRA was charged with the “responsibility of gauging that river and letting people know about the dangers.
“It was clearly evident that in 2015, and later in 2023, it was recognized through studies that you paid for that there was a need for an early warning system. In your words, ‘an alert system would have saved lives,’ and yet you didn’t do anything about it.
“You waited to receive grant money from some third party source when you had the funds available in your budget that you collect property taxes for to protect the citizens of Kerr County. You had money in your budget to fund an alert system but yet you choose, you chose not to. Would you care to elaborate on that for the benefit of this committee?”
Darby asked if the reserve funds were returned to taxpayers through property tax reductions.
Rector said the UGRA “had been frustrated over the years trying to institute flood control” since 2016, when he came on board. It wouldn’t be until nine years later that they began creating a system on their own. He didn’t answer Darby’s other questions.
“You had the resources, you had the studies that said this early warning system is a critical factor in the protection of lives, yet you continued to look down the road and not address the concern your data showed,” Darby said. “That’s particularly disturbing to me. To think about folks in their cabins who could have been warned … The folks on this panel are charged with protecting people.”
Darby also asked where Jeremy Hughes, who didn’t show up to hearing, was. Hughes, Kerrville’s long-time emergency management coordinator, retired on July 2, effective July 11. He was not involved in the July 4 emergency response, the city manager said.
“One of the problems that this process is showing is we have a lot of folks who have titles but when the time came to act they did not do so in a timely fashion,” Darby said.
He also said the legislature would be reevaluating the UGRA’s role. It was tasked with protecting the people it was collecting property taxes from on properties that were washed away by flood waters from a river the UGRA wasn’t monitoring.
Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunsfels, said Kerr County residents were paying the UGRA to collect data. Despite being established in 1939, “after 86 years, the board was just now deciding to put in an alarm to measure water,” she said. “You should be in the business of protecting people from the things that are going on in the river. I don’t see how the UGRA helped in any way in this flood.”
She also raised concerns that board members were appointed by the governor and there was no way for residents to remove them when they failed to do their jobs.
People in the room clapped.
