Public meeting held to discuss potential sale of water from Toledo Bend to Texas

MANY, La. (KPLC) — Every seat was filled at the Cypress Bend Resort for the SRA Board of Commissioners meeting Friday.

Originally, the meeting was to establish committees over Water/Power Sales, but quickly transitioned to a public discussion.

Toldeo Bend residents and visitors expressed their disdain for the possibility of selling water to Texas.

“I, and obviously the majority of these people who attended this meeting today, are totally opposed to any out-of-state water sales under any conditions,” said one resident.

“You may think that 15% is not much, I’ll tell you what to do. When you leave here today, unplug one of the wires for your spark plugs. You lose about 15% of the engine on your drive home,” said one resident.

“It was all about saving water, making sure the future people had water,” said one resident.

Warren Founds, Executive Director of the Sabine River Authority, says they have been selling water since the 1980s. And this potential sale falls under the guidelines of Louisiana law.

“I think folks are certainly worried that, you know, not knowing how much water that we’re doing, even though we’ve explained it several times in our meetings, not everybody’s coming to the meeting, so not everybody still understands all that we’re looking at, what the information we’re looking at. And so they have a concern, and their concern is that I won’t be able to. I won’t have enough water to get to my dock or whatever,” said Founds.

There isn’t a set date for a vote as of now, and Founds says there’s still plenty of steps before the sale could happen.

Following the meeting, some residents put together a petition opposing the sale, with the hope that this could encourage the council not to continue it.

The Sabine River Authority will hold its next board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 28.

Copyright 2025 KPLC. All rights reserved.