AUSTIN, Texas – A slew of new state laws are officially in effect as of Sept. 1.
Two of those laws were enacted following a monthslong KSAT investigation.
Starting last year, KSAT eventually spent more than seven months investigating private water company CSWR-Texas, which was providing brown and overly-chlorinated well water to several small Wilson County communities.
The stories, in addition to neighbors’ hard work and complaints, caught the attention of state Sen. Judith Zaffirini. Zaffirini represents Wilson County.
She sponsored several bills. Two of them became law.
SB 1662 holds companies accountable
The first of these bills to become law was Senate Bill 1662, which addresses a situation in which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is called in to investigate a water company due to a customer complaint.
Before the bill was drafted, if a water company was under investigation, the state could give a non-specific date before asking a company to conduct water tests.
SB 1662 mandates that TCEQ give a company no more than 24 hours notice before it tests the water.
“I made a complaint on September the 17th (2024). That investigator did not come out to test the well until nine days later,” Wilson County resident neighbor Carrie Wilcoxson said. “In that time, the water company had time to essentially clean up the water.”
Wilcoxson not only fought for months against CSWR-Texas for change, but she also helped author the bills that were eventually passed.
Wilcoxson told that story while testifying to the state Senate committee.
“The water had been flushed and had been shocked with chlorine,” Wilcoxson told the committee.
“Wilson County residents and local officials raised concerns that this allowed systems to treat their water temporarily before inspectors arrived, potentially skewing test results,” Zaffirini said.
SB 1663 empowers consumers with information
The second bill, Senate Bill 1663, will now require companies and the TCEQ to alert people sooner if their water is contaminated.
SB 1663 is a direct result of the original situation in the Arrowhead subdivision that prompted KSAT’s first story.
“There was E. coli in our water supply distribution system, which had been present for at least four days, and they had not notified us,” Wilcoxson said. “So, this bill will require the water company to provide notification.”
What’s next?
The local communities are not done fighting for cleaner water, not just for themselves but for the entire state.
Wilcoxson has said she plans to work alongside legislators during the next session to push through some of the bills that did not pass this past session.
KSAT will continue to follow any additional developments regarding these laws.
More related coverage of this KSAT investigation: