DeBerry Board of Directors and Community come together to move DeBerry Water Forward

In June, DWSC received several violations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), primarily due to years of neglect. To address these challenges and minimize costs, the new Board of Directors and Operators, along with community volunteers, have generously donated their time and efforts.

Thanks to this collective work, we’ve made significant progress, including removing fencing and trees from our well sites, clearing over six inches of debris from around the storage tanks, resolving some electrical issues, patching concrete at a well site, and Mary Robinson and Matt Tillman spent today power washing the pressure tanks. While we still have much work ahead, the support from our community and Board has been invaluable.

In addition, the Board of Directors recently volunteered their time to assist Donnie Golden in obtaining GPS coordinates for all known valves and meter boxes. Board Member Steve Werner, head of our Infrastructure Committee, uploaded these coordinates into a custom database and integrated them into a mapping system. This effort saved DWSC over $8,000 in GIS mapping costs which we had previously been quoted. 

On September 20th, a team of engineers from Austin, partnered with us through the Texas Water Development Board's WUTAP Grant, will visit DeBerry to tour our facilities and assist in applying for additional grants aimed at system upgrades and improvements. Board President Sara Edwards has been actively attending various water meetings across the state and will continue to do so in search of additional resources and support for our system.

We are incredibly grateful for the hard work and dedication from everyone involved. Together, we’re making great strides in improving our system.