State approves $8 million loan for Lake Kiowa water-main replacement

The Lake Kiowa Special Utility District has state approval to borrow about $8 million to replace roughly 5 more miles of aging water main on the east side of Lake Kiowa, about seven miles southeast of Gainesville. The Texas Water Development Board approved the financing on Sept. 18, 2025. Its announcement and meeting agenda show the money covers the work from planning through construction.

The money must be repaid. It comes from the Texas Water Development Fund, which makes fixed-rate loans that usually run 20 to 30 years and offers no grants or principal forgiveness, according to the fund's program guidance. The approval went to the Greater Texoma Utility Authority, acting for the district. The board estimated the district could save about $1.4 million over the loan's life by borrowing from the state. A July 2024 state board briefing put 2024 requests to a separate program, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, at more than seven times that program's capacity.

Customers are already paying more. District rate notices show that residential customers on three-quarter-inch and one-inch meters now pay a monthly minimum about $30 higher than in 2024, with most of the jump in January 2025. The notice for a smaller increase in January 2026 cited operating costs and debt payments for current and future replacement projects.

The board's project assessment says the system dates to 1967 and includes asbestos-cement pipe. The district serves about 2,900 residents. It estimates about 40 line breaks and about 9 million gallons of water loss each year.

The program has cost more than first planned. In November 2024, the district reported that four of six phases had replaced slightly more than half its lines for about $14 million, the original estimate for the whole program. A rate notice that month put Phase 5 at about $6 million. Minutes in a September 2025 Greater Texoma Utility Authority meeting packet attribute the higher figure to rising material and construction costs and record a unanimous vote to seek the larger amount.

The district had planned to delay Phase 5. In December 2024, it said that breaks rose after a dry summer and fall, so it moved the work forward. On April 9, 2025, its board approved CobbFendley for the engineering, with every director present voting yes, according to the minutes.

The same December statement said Phase 4 pipe bursting disturbed more ground than expected because old lines were shallower or in different places than drawings showed. The district committed to boring on future work. A Sept. 9, 2026, district update named Blackrock Construction as contractor and said crews would bore new line through easements across the street from the old mains. It projected a Sept. 1 start but did not confirm work had begun.

In December 2024, the district said its Phase 6 lines are just as old but have broken less often, which could let that last phase wait.