WSC VS CO-OP, AND LACY ANNEXATION FILTER
Prepared: 2026-06-06

Bottom line:
If someone says "co-op," ask what they mean.

For Texas retail water, the clean local-control entity is a Texas Water Code Chapter 67 Water Supply Corporation. That is the practical co-op-style water model: nonprofit, member/customer-owned, board-run, and built for water/sewer service.

A generic "co-op" label does not reduce PUC, TCEQ, operator, engineer, map, FMT, Waco/Ross, or upgrade requirements. Texas also has an electric cooperative statute, but that is not a water-utility authority path.

Does a co-op require less money to run?
No meaningful shortcut. It may avoid profit/shareholder pressure and use a volunteer board, but the real costs remain: operator, testing, power, repairs, insurance, accounting, legal/PUC, engineering, mapping, FMT proof, and upgrades.

Meeting line:
"If by co-op we mean a Chapter 67 WSC, yes, that is the local-control model. If we mean a separate co-op that avoids PUC work or lowers operating cost, we do not have evidence for that."

Lacy Lakeview:
Treat Lacy as a relationship/infrastructure lane, not the base solution.

Why not base:
- Annexation changes city jurisdiction. It does not automatically remove Waco water/sewer CCN issues.
- Lacy Lakeview's own water page says it purchases water from the City of Waco.
- Public reporting says the data-center annexation path still has corridor/contiguity and Waco water/sewer friction.
- Annexation can add taxes, city rules, politics, and schedule risk before solving the title/water problem.

When Lacy becomes serious:
- They identify the exact annexation/corridor route.
- They say who provides retail water and sewer after annexation.
- They identify every Waco/PUC/TCEQ action still needed.
- They put cost, capacity, rates, timing, and any Heritage concessions in writing.

Lacy meeting line:
"Lacy may be useful as a relationship and infrastructure lane. It is not a substitute for written water authority. If they can give us a written tap/capacity/service path without unwanted annexation or land-control strings, compare it. Until then, keep the WSC/F200 proof sprint moving."

Sources:
- PUC WSC page: https://www.puc.texas.gov/faucetfacts/water-supply-corporations/Default.aspx
- Texas Water Code Ch. 67: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/WA/htm/WA.67.htm
- Texas Utilities Code Ch. 161: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/UT/htm/UT.161.htm
- Lacy Lakeview Water: https://www.lacylakeview.org/water/
- Local Gov. Code Ch. 43: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/LG/htm/LG.43.htm
- Local Gov. Code Ch. 42: https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/LG/htm/LG.42.htm