The Texas Water Development Board on Thursday awarded the City of Zavalla $5,392,157 in principal forgiveness from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to overhaul the Angelina County town’s failing drinking water system, state records show. The money carries no debt repayment for the city of roughly 950 residents.
Zavalla’s current distribution network is about 60 years old and averages 48 pipe breaks a year, state and news accounts of the vote say. The system loses an estimated 10.3 million gallons of treated water annually, close to 30 percent of total output. The city has also faced Texas Commission on Environmental Quality enforcement violations for not meeting minimum standards on service pump, storage and well capacity.
The project replaces 31,000 feet of deteriorated asbestos-cement water lines, drills a new water well, installs 24 pumps and builds three new storage tanks that together hold 160,000 gallons. The city qualified for full principal forgiveness as a disadvantaged, small and very small rural system using trenchless, low-impact construction methods, according to the project funding request filed with TWDB.
For Zavalla residents, the award means a long-promised rebuild of a system that has leaked, broken and run short of capacity for decades, paid for without new local debt. Construction schedule and water-service impacts have not yet been released by the city.
Sources: Texas Water Development Board, October 1, 2026 board meeting agenda, item 19; KTRE; KLTV.