The Texas Water Development Board Approved $73.8 Million for Water, Wastewater, and Flood Projects
On Nov. 12 the Texas Water Development Board approved $73,800,905 in financial assistance for seven projects, including a $34 million wastewater loan for Marble Falls and a $30.3 million drinking-water grant for Weatherford.
The Texas Water Development Board on Thursday, Nov. 12, approved $73,800,905 in financial assistance for seven water, wastewater, and flood projects in communities from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast. A board summary released the same day lists the total and the seven recipients. The individual project releases, also dated Nov. 12, show that the money is not all the same kind of aid: some of it is loans, some is grants, and some is a mix of financing and principal forgiveness. Board approval is not the same thing as finished construction.
The two largest awards account for most of the total. The board approved $30,315,905 in grant funding to the City of Weatherford, in Parker County, from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund's Emerging Contaminants for Small or Disadvantaged Systems program. The city will use the assistance for planning, design, and construction of water-system improvements. The Weatherford release says the city proposes treatment-plant work using granular activated carbon, reverse osmosis, or ion exchange as its preferred method, pending a pilot study. It also says the city will modify existing contactors for PFAS treatment and install four new granular activated carbon contactors, a 108,000-gallon backwash supply basin, pumps, filters, and related electrical and chemical-feed upgrades.
The board also approved $34 million in financial assistance to the City of Marble Falls, in Burnet County, from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, for construction of a wastewater-system improvements project. The Marble Falls release says the city could save approximately $11.2 million over the life of the loan by using that fund. With the assistance, the city will build a new lift station, force main, treatment units, a drainage pump station, odor control, a flow-equalization basin, effluent filtration, chemical disinfection, biosolids handling, electrical and operations buildings, and a SCADA system at the city's new wastewater treatment and reclamation plant.
In Austin, the board approved a $3,235,000 loan from the Flood Infrastructure Fund to the city, to meet the match requirement for a federal grant program. The release says Austin could save approximately $1.3 million over the life of the loan by using the fund, and that the city will leverage approximately $2.5 million in federal funding through FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program to complete phase 1 of the South Austin Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant and Sand Hill Energy Center Flood Reduction project. During phase 1, the city will complete the environmental assessment, engineering, design, and permitting. The loan, the release says, supports flood-mitigation projects outlined in the regional and state flood plans.
The remaining four awards are smaller, and their terms differ. The City of San Angelo, in Tom Green County, was approved for $3 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund's Lead Service Line Replacement program, consisting of $1,470,000 in financing and $1,530,000 in principal forgiveness. San Angelo will use the assistance to complete an inventory of its water system, specifically the remaining 6,442 lines. In addition to the principal forgiveness, the city could save approximately $700,000 by using the fund, the release says.
Harris County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1A was approved for $1.5 million from the same lead-service-line program, consisting of $735,000 in financing and $765,000 in principal forgiveness, for planning, design, and construction of a water-system improvements project. The district will replace approximately 1,300 feet of water lines. In addition to the principal forgiveness, the district could save approximately $270,000 by using the fund, the release says.
The City of Plainview, in Hale County, was approved for $1 million in grant funding from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund's Emerging Contaminants for Small or Disadvantaged Systems program, for planning and design only. The Plainview release says the city proposes to design treatment-plant improvements using reverse osmosis or ion exchange as its preferred method, along with high-service pumps, variable-frequency drives, a new water main, electrical and chemical-feed systems, and additional membranes. It does not name a specific contaminant in that release.
The board also approved $750,000 in principal forgiveness from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to the Christian Life Center in Lubbock County, for planning, design, and construction of a water-system improvements project. The release says the center will install a 50-gallon-per-minute air stripper, a generator, a 5,000-gallon ground storage tank, and two high-service pumps rated at 2.0 gallons per minute per connection, plus 200 feet of new 2-inch water lines to create looping for improved water quality, 17 new meters, and electrical improvements.
Those seven amounts add up to the $73,800,905 in the board's summary. The "could save" figures in the Austin, Marble Falls, San Angelo, and Harris County releases are the board's own estimates and are not a guarantee of future rates or a single statewide total. A loan, a grant, and principal forgiveness are different instruments, and this report does not add those savings estimates together. The approvals also do not, by themselves, set construction schedules or guarantee that every proposed treatment method will be the one built. Weatherford's preferred method is still pending a pilot study, and Plainview's award is for planning and design.
The Water Development Board describes itself as the state agency charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional water and flood planning, preparing the state water and flood plans, and administering cost-effective financial-assistance programs for water supply, wastewater treatment, flood mitigation, and agricultural water conservation projects. Thursday's action is one meeting's worth of those approvals, spread across flood work in Austin, a new wastewater plant in Marble Falls, drinking-water projects in Weatherford, Plainview, San Angelo, Harris County, and Lubbock County, and several different state and federal funding streams. Separately, as we also report today, Texas A&M regents approved a $14.22 million water well at the RELLIS campus in Bryan, a different project and a different funding source. "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2).
