On January 8, 2025, the Houston Chronicle broke the story that Mayor Whitmire is colluding with the state to sell our water to special interests based in West Texas.
Whitmire plans to sell our water to West Texas to in order to secure a portion of the roughly $15 billion the city needs in order to fix or replace leaky pipes that have wasted ~32 billion gallons since 2023. We cannot trust him with these funds. Any time Whitmire has received funds to improve our infrastructure, he’s either cancelled the project or reformed it in a way where it no longer addresses the root problem. For example, cancelling the University Corridor BRT line and Shepherd-Durham project threw away millions in federal funding that could have improved our city. Whitmire’s record shows we cannot trust him with money that improves our city.
The issue with Whitmire’s scheme to sell our water is much bigger than trust. The 2022 Texas State Water Plan projects that in the next five years, the Houston area’s water demands will exceed existing supplies. The shortages our city could face reach up to 151 billion gallons of water. Selling our water worsens this impending crisis.
This kind of short-sighted leadership is dangerous for our city. Selling our water and placing us at risk of shortages is selling out our city’s future. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country and has amazing potential. We cannot realize this potential if there’s no water for the citizens of the city.
Recall for Houston 