Technical Reports Document Library

Note:  This report is included for its historical value but has been replaced by the Texas Water Plan.

Public and stakeholder participation in long range water planning is a relatively recent development in natural resource planning. In today’s major planning projects ·participation” means that the public and stakeholders have real opportunities to affect the decision making process and its outcomes. The Trans-Texas Water Program, West Central Study Area, proposes to have a significant public participation/stakeholder involvement process in its Phase 2 study effort.

The terms “public” and “stakeholders,” together, mean all interested and affected parties to a planning effort. In Trans-Texas, “public” refers to any member or group of members of the citizenry who is a water consumer or who has an interest in water resources in the region. “Stakeholders” refers to organized entities having an economic or other interest in water such as governments, businesses, or organized citizens/special interest groups. Any successful water resource planning effort must fully involve all of these groups who collectively pay for, or otherwise make possible, water development projects.

This Technical Memorandum documents the critical beginnings of a public process in connection with this major planning effort and defines the commitment of the sponsoring agencies to that process. This Memorandum outlines the initial steps taken and their outcomes, including the:

• Policy Management Committee’s (PMC) two-day workshop on public and stakeholder involvement

• Specific goals and objectives of the public process

• Adopted Principles of Participation, and

• The critical program issues identified by the contractor

As a future navigational point of reference for process design and decision making, this Memorandum will be frequently re-visited. As a vision for the future, this Memorandum can be used by any interested person from a PMC member to a concerned citizen.

This report is divided into the following sections:

• An Overview of the Trans-Texas Water Program

• The Public Participation/Stakeholder Involvement Process

• A Situational Analysis

• The Next Steps – Strategy Formulation