One Water New Braunfels
New Braunfels Utilities, the City of New Braunfels, and Guadalupe Blanco River Authority are pleased to introduce One Water New Braunfels, a transformative collaborative program to ensure the treasured local waters of New Braunfels remain celebrated, sustainable, and protected features of our community for generations.
One Water New Braunfels
The vision of One Water New Braunfels is to ensure water remains a celebrated and protected feature of our community by collaboratively managing our water resources to safeguard watersheds, waterways, and groundwater. To achieve this, we must:
- Plan for and manage water resources holistically and sustainably
- Maximize environmental, social, and economic benefits to the greater New Braunfels area
- Ensure water remains a celebrated feature of our community
- Provide sustainable and high-quality water
- Ensure healthy watersheds, waterways, and groundwater resources
With a strong desire to provide water management that is resilient, sustainable, and in keeping with the values of the New Braunfels community, the One Water New Braunfels Roadmap is a framework to support water management agencies and the community in realizing its vision.
The 2023 Interlocal Agreement between the three agencies outlines the governance and management of the One Water New Braunfels program. The agreement establishes an advisory council and a working group, made up of subject matter experts from the three agencies, responsible for continued development and implementation of the New Braunfels One Water Roadmap. A Program Coordinator will manage day to day operations of the program, support efforts of the advisory council and working group, and serve as primary liaison with the community at large.
Program History
- Since 2019, New Braunfels Utilities has collaborated with the City of New Braunfels and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority to explore One Water as a holistic approach to planning and managing water for New Braunfels.
- A hard-working group of more than twenty technical experts worked together to identify the primary challenges New Braunfels’s water resources face and the strategic and actionable ways the agencies could work together with the community to address these challenges.
- The One Water New Braunfels vision centers around an understanding that any decision, use, or impact on water – no matter the type of water – is interconnected, for it is ALL one water. This One Water approach is different from the predominant approach that shaped the water management structure our agencies currently function under. The approach compartmentalizes water into its various sectors, such as drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, recreational water, decisions made in isolation from each other, and so forth. Instead, a One Water approach – and our New Braunfels One Water program – helps us see all water as “one water” and work more collectively as a group when we address water issues.
- While still a high-level document, the One Water New Braunfels Roadmap is a tool that New Braunfels Utilities and partners the city of New Braunfels and Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority will use to inform water management decisions from a holistic approach and collaborate when addressing the complex water challenges we often face.
What is One Water?
The Water Research Foundation defines One Water as an integrated planning and implementation approach to managing finite water resources for long-term resilience and reliability, meeting not only the economic needs but also community and ecosystem needs.
The One Water approach is being adopted and implemented by cities, utilities, urban planners, engineers, community groups, and policymakers across the globe. Instead of compartmentalizing water into its various sectors – such as drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, recreational water, and so forth – and making decisions in isolation from each other, this approach mandates that we see it is all “one water” and work more collectively as a group when we address water issues.
