The Brown County Water Improvement District board met Tuesday afternoon and unanimously agreed not to proceed with their proposed $12 million pipeline project to take effluent water from the City of Brownwood back to Lake Brownwood.
BCWID General Manager Dennis Spinks reported that the project would increase the cost of treated water to their wholesale customers to a cost of $1.28/1000 gallons, causing an increase of 41.74% in the treated water rate. These figures according to Spinks did not take into consideration evaporation which will and does occur.
With the City of Early considering their own wastewater treatment plant, these costs could additionally rise, as Early would be reducing the inflow and outflow of water into Lake Brownwood by 14%, reported Spinks.
Spinks explained that engineer Rex Hunt and associates determined the cost to build the pipeline at approximately nearly $12 million and that it would cost $350,000 per year to operate according to estimates. The average cost increase would be $5.60 per month to each customer, which he and other board members agreed is not a huge increase for the security of having an additional source of water.
The cost of the project would have been funded from a Texas Water Development Board loan and repaid over a 20 year term, according to Spinks.In a previous meeting of the BCWID board, members discussed the project and Spinks had reported that 100% of the output of the wastewater treatment plant could be piped back into Lake Brownwood, with only some loss of water due to evaporation once released back into the lake.
BCWID proposed the pipeline project to pipe City of Brownwood wastewater back to Lake Brownwood after treatment. This was an alternative plan to Brownwood’s proposal to treat the wastewater with a new treatment plant and reuse it in the city’s water system.
The retail customers of Brown County will ultimately pay for either project, Spinks stated at the BCWID November board meeting. “We don’t want to overburden our customers but I believe that most individuals would pay a premium to have a secure source of water.”
However, during this latest BCWID board meeting, board members did not feel the near $12M investment and an ongoing expense was a good idea. Board Member Jimmy Jones stated that he was worried about debt retirement and that looking forward, it would be a better idea to let the City of Brownwood go forward on their water reuse plant, which would allow the water district to continue looking for other water sources, such as underground water accessed by a well field.
Brownwood City Manager Bobby Rountree stated that the city has an engineering estimate, a design and that they do have a very good idea of the cost of their own water treatment plant, which will lessen the drain on Lake Brownwood by approximately 1.5 million gallons per day. Brownwood’s proposed waste water reuse plant would treat effluent water from the city’s waste water treatment plant and add it to the city’s water supply system. The proposed water reuse plant would be paid by the taxpayers of the City of Brownwood; however other customers of BCWID outside of Brownwood would have increased water rates due to the loss of revenue from the lower amount of water being purchased by the City of Brownwood. A slight rate increase should be expected to offset the 1.5 million gallons/day the City of Brownwood would not have to purchase.
BCWID Board Member Ted Simpson agreed with Jones and believed it best to search for another alternative source of water stating that he believes there is an abundance of underground water in the eastern portion of Brown County that should be explored.
Board Member Bert Massey stated that he felt the pipeline project didn’t give good enough results for the cost and burden it will place on the district and its customers.
“I was willing to explore (the pipeline project) until we got the numbers, but now we have the numbers and you just don’t get the bang for the buck. We can always go back to this project,” said Massey. “The long-term solution is to find a water field.”
Massey explained that he knows finding a water field will be very expensive but that he felt it worth the cost to have security of knowing the area will have water for the future.
Surrounding area cities and communities are also looking into alternative water sources. Spinks gave examples such as Goldthwaite spending $3 million to pipe water from San Saba County, and explained that Stephenville depends on a well field of 30 wells that are 300-400 feet deep and draw from the Trinity aquifer which is strong in Erath County. Many other communities are piping water from Possum Kingdom Lake which is supplied from the Brazos River.
Members unanimously voted at this time not to pursue the pipeline project to return effluent water from the City of Brownwood’s waste water treatment plant back to Lake Brownwood.
