Water Projects Flowing With Opportunities In Texas

Shared by Hays County’s three largest cities, the Canyon Regional Water Authority and a loan through the Texas Water Development Board’s bond program…

by Kristin Gordon

A $225.8 million water supply project is set to begin in 2018 on a 95-mile pipeline to pump groundwater from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in Caldwell County. Buda, Kyle, San Marcos and other communities will receive an additional 13 million gallons of water per day beginning in 2023.

The Alliance Regional Water Authority (ARWA) conceived the plan for a pipeline and the cost will be shared by Hays County’s three largest cities, the Canyon Regional Water Authority and a loan through the Texas Water Development Board’s bond program.    

The ARWA has released a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a program management firm to oversee the $213.4 million, Phase 1B development. The RFQ is due by Dec. 21. The first portion of the project, Phase 1A, will connect Buda’s and Kyle’s water systems at a cost of $12.4 million. Construction will run from 2018 through 2019. 

The ARWA is looking into other ways to increase water supply such as the injection of surface water into an aquifer for later use and the injection of treated wastewater into the drinking water supply. As the end of 2017 draws near, several other Texas counties and cities are making water and wastewater infrastructure plans for the new year.  

In 2016, the city of Odessa hired an engineering firm to perform a study on improvements to its water treatment plant. The firm is expected to finish that test by the end of the year, and the city council could then decide whether to invest in the upgrades. 

If results are successful from a pilot test currently underway at the water treatment plant, the city might invest more than $100 million to build a large-scale reverse osmosis system. Preliminary estimates call for about $40 million worth of needed repairs to the city’s water treatment plant, which was built in the 1950s. The reverse osmosis system could cost another $65 million. 

The city plans to receive $120 million over an 11-year period by selling treated wastewater to an oil company.  

The city of Schertz plans to build a sewage treatment facility and wastewater lines in 2018 at a cost of $5 million. The project is currently in the design phase for the Woman Hollering Creek wastewater line and lift station. 

Also in the design phase is a million-gallon, elevated water storage tank near Farm-to-Market Road 1518 and Ray Corbett Drive with accompanying lines to tie into the city’s water system. 

Bids on the $2.5 million project is expected early next year. Another upcoming project is to repaint several city water storage tanks.  

The city of Huntsville is underway on the design phase of the city’s water and wastewater upgrades, which is scheduled for completion in 2018. The city will then move on to remodel and renovate the A.J. Brown Wastewater Treatment Plant, N.B. Davidson Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Palm Street Plant.

Funding for the Proposition 3 projects were approved by voters in a bond election and is not to exceed $73 million.  

The city of Snook is in the development phase for a $2 million water treatment plant. The current facility is 40 years old and as it continues to age, deterioration of water filtration will begin taking place.

The new water plant will be built in place of the current one on County Road 268. 

This story originally published by Strategic Partnerships, Inc.