City of Silverton secures $14.99M for water infrastructure from Texas Water Board

SILVERTON, Texas (KVII) — The City of Silverton in Briscoe County was awarded $14,990,000 from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) overseen by the Texas Water Development Board to tap into a new water source.

This will help reduce the water demand the City of Silverton gets from Lake Mackenzie. As the final details of the project are being ironed out, securing additional water sources will help ensure viability for the future.

“Every town the water is the biggest deal, if we don’t have water you don’t have a town,” said John Hall, Silverton City Manager.

To ensure they have a growing future, the City of Silverton is planning to use financial assistance from the state to drill three additional water wells on land it has in Swisher County.

Currently, the city gets its water 60% from Lake Mackenzie and 40% from wellfields east of town. The two water sources are blended before being consumed for commercial or domestic use.

“It’s going to extend our water for our future kids our future grandchildren and all that,” said Hall. “It’s going to be a big part.”

“We really don’t have a big budget like Amarillo or any of these bigger towns,” said Jesse Hall, Public Works Director for Silverton. “Any money we can get to improve our water systems or anything like that will gladly take it and do whatever we can to stay relevant and keep our town the best it can be.”

A percentage of the funding is coming in the form of a loan something the City of Silverton will pay back over time.

“It’s not set in stone but about $4.9 million is going to be a loan and we're going to pay for that loan by increasing our rates so we can pay for that loan,” said John Hall.

Once all the funding is secured from the state of Texas, the City of Silverton expects to work on improving its water infrastructure and quality sometime in the year 2025.

Right now, the city is working on other water infrastructure projects by refurbishing its above-groundwater storage tanks.

Funding will also help the city add a new UMP station, build and install a water transmission line and provide a new data acquisition system along with other upgrades.