By Anton Riecher
East Medina County Special Utility District is designated to receive $500,000 in Texas Department of Agriculture community development block grant funding awarded to Medina County, district superintendent Bruce Alexander reported during the Oct. 15 district board meeting.
Also reviewed were plans to apply for $2.3 million in state funding to connect EMCSUD to a subdivision water system near Dunlay. Discussion also included new requests for water service from multiple digital data centers in the district.
The CDBG funding will be used to rebuild under used water lines along County Road 5710, Alexander said.
“A city can go out and get their own community development block grants,” he said. “The water systems must go through the county.”
Medina County applies for these grants through the Alamo Area Council of Governments, rotating them among the various water systems.
“We actually applied for this grant three years ago,” Alexander said. “COVID put a slow walk on it, delaying it. Last year we were up for it but the city of Castroville scored higher and got the grant away from us.”
Interconnection Grant
In other grant news, EMCSUD has been approved to make application to the Texas Water Development Board for $2.3 million to cover the cost of an interconnection between the district’s Unit Two water plant and the Creekwood Ranches subdivision water system acquired by the district two years ago.
“That’s pretty good news for us,” Alexander said. “That’s a potential 100 percent grant to the district from TWDB.”
The subdivision is located six miles east of Hondo, north of Highway 90. The Creekwood Ranches Water Supply Corporation was acquired by EMCSUD in May 2022.
As with the CDBG funding, the breakthrough with the TWDB application is the result of repeated attempts.
“We applied a year and a half ago,” Alexander said. “In the first round of funding we didn’t qualify so they asked us to reapply.”
That second application was added to a priority list by TWDB. In August, EMCSUD was approved to make application for the grant. The deadline for that application was Oct. 18.
TWDB conducts a meeting every month to review applications, Alexander said.
“Depending on how long it takes them to review the application it’s possible it could be funded as early as the middle of next month,” he said.
Data Centers
As to the requests for water service from several digital data centers Alexander said he was not at liberty to discuss the requests in detail.
“I can’t really talk about them because the district, at their request, has entered into non-disclosure agreements with them,” Alexander said. “They are very protective of their information.”
According to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings, two Microsoft data centers are reaching completion near Castroville. The combined centers total 106,012 square feet and cost $230 million to construct.
In addition, Microsoft is expected to break ground on an additional $482 million data center near Castroville in spring 2026, TDLR filings show.
In addition to the unnamed data centers, Alexander said the district is working to extend service to several small subdivisions as CONTINUE READING by becoming a member