The City of Brownwood is continuing with plans to develop a system to recycle the city’s wastewater to extend the life of the water supply from Lake Brownwood. City officials are currently working to get approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ) for a reverse osmosis treatment plant which will take water from the wastewater treatment plant and process it into drinking water.
City Manager Bobby Rountree reported at Tuesday’s city council meeting that the process has been slow, until Senator Troy Frasier became involved. Frasier is the chairman of the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee and attended a meeting of the board of directors of the Brown County Water Improvement District No. 1 on November 2nd.
“Senator Frasier was beneficial,” stated Rountree. “His aide came to the TCEQ meeting and now it is moving faster than probably any other proposal.”
David Harris, the city’s director of public works, stated that this project for Brownwood is the first of its kind in the State of Texas and in the nation.
“This is a brand new project, the project we are speaking about will be the first of its kind in the nation exactly like this, so they (TCEQ) are a little ‘shell shocked’ on what to do and how to do it,” said Harris. “As a general rule, they are rather conservative, maybe to a fault.”
Harris explained that about a week after the meeting, and with Senator Fraiser’s support, he has been receiving emails with information and getting responses to questions quickly from TECQ.
Harris explained that the process is in an information sharing point now between TECQ and the city of Brownwood to help in developing ideas for a more formal request. The city’s goal is to get the best water system possible within a one year period according to Harris.
“Within two weeks, we should be at a point to be able to do a cost approximate and have an idea of their guidelines. If our proposal is just a flat out no response, we’ll need to quit pushing on it,” said Harris. “Our job right now is to figure out what will get the best water supply for Brownwood that we can get within a year. We need something within a year.”
Harris stated that Brownwood is utilizing the same engineer who built the reverse osmosis plant at Lake Granbury.
“The only difference is water will be taken straight from the wastewater treatment plant to a water treatment plant through pipes where most systems go through a pond or river,” said Harris. “The process of taking wastewater through a pond or river that has frogs, turtles and fish means that it gets dirtier as it is transported.”
Harris said that some people are hesitant to utilize the wastewater treatment as another source for a water supply; however, he stated that some lakes are actually filled with a larger quantity of “dissolved solid waste particles.”
“Our wastewater has 420 dissolved solids as compared to 1700 in Lake Granbury,” said Harris who explained these dissolved solids are in the form of salt and chloride.
Harris explained that the drought came on quickly and could become worse, so time is of the essence.
“This drought came on so fast; over a period of 13 months Texas was in worse condition than in the 1950s after a 7 year drought,” said Harris. “If it continues on, no telling how bad it could get.”
Harris explained that the current Palmer Severity index reached a -5.65 after 7 years of drought in the 50’s; however that same index reached a -6.06 in 2011 after 1 year indicating a more severe drought currently.
Harris also reported that 2011 had the highest statewide average temperature in the last 100 years in all of the US, which was 86.8° F. This year was the worst 1 year drought since 1895 when record keeping began according to information presented at a Texas Municipal League conference Harris attended in October.
The last significant recharge of rainwater into Lake Brownwood was back in September of 2010, adding only 2.2 feet to the lake level, according to Harris. The rain Monday night saved approximately 1 million gallons of water due to most citizens not watering in anticipation of the rain. Nine tenths of an inch of rain was measured at the Brownwood wastewater treatment plant Monday night, Harris reported.
The wastewater of the City of Brownwood currently is released and sent downstream, and if the reverse osmosis plant is built, a percentage of this water would be captured and set aside to create a constant flow of water for treatment. Harris explained that RO plants work best, processing approximately 1000 gallons per minute, when kept running with a constant flow of wastewater which would equal 1 ½ million gallons per day, 1/3 of Brownwood’s average daily water usage.
Officials stated that they anticipate the reverse osmosis system to be in place in about one year if approved by TECQ; however there are many hurdles to jump before the project can be approved.
