Texas’ temperatures have always been unfriendly.
Here lately, they’ve become as unwelcoming as some of the state’s controversial laws — from the record-breaking freeze that killed power for a week and hundreds of people in February 2021 to the recent months of too many summer days with temperatures over 106 degrees.
Denton Mayor Pro Tem Brian Beck has also noticed two confounding trends: increased summer temperatures and a decrease in availability of outdoor water fountains for people in Denton.
Whether the people are joggers, festival attendees or the unhoused, Beck said there has been an increasing need for public water but difficulty in finding it. The result causes an increase in public health and emergency medical services costs related to dehydration, Beck said, as well as a greater reliance on bottled water.
It’s a situation that Beck said affects the budgets of water providers from the city and county to nonprofits.
At the Denton City Council’s work session Sept. 19, Beck said local nonprofits have distributed 250,000 plastic bottles of water — 33,000 gallons — for about $250,000 in costs. But, he said, if the city had distributed the same amount of city water, it would have only cost about $1,000.
“Bottled water is several hundred times more costly to provide than metered water while also producing plastic packaging waste, adding to the costs,” Beck said. “As we develop climate resilience strategies, we need to be proactive, not reactive.”
That proactive thinking revealed itself when Beck pitched an idea to a mostly receptive council for the creation of a comprehensive program for what he called public hydration stations, such as exterior water fountains and bottle fillers.
Beck also suggested a short-term goal of tripling the number of stations around the city and indicated that his request to expand the water fountains and bottle filling stations also aligns with 12 of the council’s 26 priorities for this council year.
“The extreme needs come during the oppressive heat of the summer months,” Beck said in a recent interview with the Record-Chronicle. “Part of the reason I asked for this now as we go into the cooler fall temperatures is to give the city enough lead time to design, scope and [hopefully] begin to implement plans before the next dangerous heat cycle.”
A majority of the council gave direction for staff to move forward with the work session idea. That will occur at some point in December, according to city staff.
Mayor Gerard Hudspeth and council member Chris Watts didn’t give direction for the idea to move forward. Watts said he couldn’t give direction to do so because he felt like the issue was already decided for the city to do it.
Hudspeth offered several reasons why he wouldn’t give direction to do so, including the water fountains already available at Denton’s parks; a lack of conversation about the idea during the council’s current budget discussions; and the $14 million in funds recently allocated to the Denton Community Shelter.
“That is what we need to push and partner with them,” Hudspeth said.
Council members Brandon Chase McGee and Vicki Byrd supported Beck’s idea. McGee called it an opportunity for them to do better. Byrd said the conversation is needed, especially given climate change issues.
Council member Joe Holland supported Beck’s recommendation for a work session to discuss the topic.
“I hope we can do this without adding more plastic bottles to the environment,” Holland said.
Council member Paul Meltzer also supported Beck’s recommendation and said it would be a good idea to look at the data since the need for water has been obviously demonstrated anecdotally.
The data is something Beck is interested in seeing. City Manager Sara Hensley said that installing more water fountains or water filling stations would cost between $20,000 and $30,000, and retrofitting older ones “would not be financially viable.”
Hensley also mentioned the infrastructure issues of pouring pads, laying piping, etc.
Beck wrote in a Friday afternoon email to the Record-Chronicle that unit costs for water fountains were more typically between $500 and $5,000, with a general mean more like $3,000.
Of course, there are the additional costs associated with plumbing, metering and installation, Beck said, but it’s unclear if it will cost $20,000 to $30,000 with an expert estimate.
Beck also mentioned alternative ways to fund it through grant opportunities, as he’d done in his proposal to council, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water grants and grant programs through the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Beck said that in his pitch to council members, he specifically mentioned incentivizing public and private partnerships to alleviate costs and find additional benefits such as maintenance costs, reduced meter fees, tax policy, tax increment reinvestment zone funds and community grants to install additional units.
Around the country, cities are taking on similar public water supply issues, Beck said. He mentioned many alternatives and options that “are more or less economical” relative to Hensley’s expectations.
For example, several cities have installed meters suitable for temporary fountain hookups, while in Europe, Beck mentioned that some cities have been leveraging fire hydrant infrastructure to add drinking units.
In Texas, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would require hydrants to be cleaned and quality tested, but if the price point was reasonable, Beck said council members could look into it.
Doing so, Beck said, would also contribute to the economic vitality — including sales tax revenue — at public spaces in places like downtown. He claimed that consumers and tourists are more likely to visit retail, parks and festival locations “if there are water amenities available showing a commitment to a supportive environment.”
Beck said that council members used similar arguments to promote the new ambassadors program that will bring uniformed security staff downtown. It’s a program that will cost taxpayers more than $700,000 annually.
“All options should be on the table, but at some point, leadership has to ask itself how the city responds to hydration service gaps, whether public health, economic development or, in this case, both,” Beck said.