Written by Ben Cox – The city of Early gave a guided tour of its new waste water treatment facility today at 1:00, and explained the process by which the cities waste water will be treated.

Construction was bid by five contractors, with the winning bid awarded to 413 out of Texarkana. Construction came in under the projected budget, costing the city close to 6.8 million dollars including the cost of land acquisition.

Visitors to the new City of Early Wastewater Treatment Facility inspect a piece of the equipment at the first of the facility’s three ponds

When asked why this facility was so important to the city, City Administrator Tony Aaron said “we now have a fixed cost that we know what our wastewater treatment is gonna cost us, and that is in debt service. There’s not a lot of operation to this facility so operational costs of the next 20 years should not be greatly impacted.” Aaron continued “with debt service, we know that it’s fixed for however many years the debt is to pay off, so the cost of treatment doesn’t fluctuate.

The over 2 million dollars in excess funds earmarked for the project will be used by the city for renovations to the existing sewer system as well as the purchase of “equipment like sewer trucks, VacTron equipment, maybe a camera system, and we still have to build a shop” according to Aaron.

City Administrator Tony Aaron (center) prepares to address the facility’s visitors during the tour

Three pipes connect the entire city to the new system, two of which are already up and running. Waste water is collected at the junction of these pipes, and sent to the first of three ponds. Unlike other treatment facilities, no chemicals will be used to treat the effluent water.

Aaron said “It’s a natural treatment, its a lagoon type of system so it’s a lot like a septic system. It self treats itself then disperses the water back into he natural environment.” Naturally occurring bacteria in the wastewater along with evaporation will begin to eliminate the contaminants in the first of the three ponds.

One of the pipes that feeds into the first pond

The largest of the ponds is over 20 acres in size, and water from that pond will be gathered by a floating pump to water a hayfield adjacent to the facility. The first crop is expected to be planted and harvested within a year, depending on how full the ponds get.

After starting operation earlier this week, over 180,000 gallons has flowed through the facility as of Wednesday afternoon.

The third, and largest of the three ponds covers approximately 24 acres

The facility is primarily gravity fed and has been strategically located to avoid having to rerun sewer lines. The portions of the system that are not gravity fed can be operated and programmed via wireless access on a tablet type device.

Aaron says that the reason the city has been working towards this project for the last five years is primarily about cost savings for the city and it’s residents. “Brownwood has been really great about treating our water for years and years and years, but we’re subject to whether their rates go up…so this is a way for us to have that in our own control.”

The facility is expected to be completely operational by the 18th of this month.