The City of Brownwood moved a step closer on Tuesday to implement a wastewater reuse project after a presentation from representatives from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Brownwood City Council authorized the application for financial assistance on Tuesday from the Texas Water Development Board to fund engineering and construction costs of the proposed Supplemental Water Supply Treatment Facility (SWSTF) and improvements to the City’s existing wastewater treatment facility.
Brownwood City Finance Director Walter Middleton reminded the city council that this step is not approving the project, but was just the next step to secure funding for the project if eventually approved.
“Today’s request for an application is not funding, we are not getting any money, all we are doing is asking for approval (of the application),” said Middleton.
With the approval of this authorization, City of Brownwood staff may apply for funds from TWDB from a loan not to exceed $12 Million. The potential costs of the projects are estimated to be $11,185,000; however the larger amount is being requested to make sure enough funds are available should costs vary. If eventually approved, and estimated $8,185,000 of the funds would be used for the Supplemental Water Supply Treatment Facility while $3,000,000 would be for repairs and improvements to the city’s the current wastewater treatment plant.
City council also approved authorizing the mayor’s signature on a professional services agreement with Hearn Engineering for final design on the water reuse plant and preliminary and final designs for improvement on the existing wastewater treatment plant.
Officials from TCEQ addressed the Brownwood City Council regarding the process of design and safety of the proposed Supplemental Water Supply Treatment Facility which will treat the city’s wastewater for direct potable use (drinking water).
Linda Brookins, Director, TCEQ Water Supply Division addressed the council in detail and reported that the preliminary plant design has been approved. Brookins and her expert staff from TCEQ came to address the system design, process of construction and final approval of the plant as well as water quality and safety.
Brookins spoke of the immediate need to streamline the process of approval and how TCEQ is now making some exceptions to the process such as streamlining and running some of the reviews concurrently to save valuable time to water systems that are running low.
“Some systems are having to come up with creative, out of the box type solutions,” said Brookins who explained how TCEQ is now working with other agencies and states that they want to learn more options for systems that are desperately trying to find alternative sources of water.
The process of preliminary design and final design approval along with the construction process was also discussed. Brookins assured that as the plant is built, there will be samples taken which will be reviewed to make sure that all processes are working as they should. She committed that TCEQ will be working with the City of Brownwood by providing guidance and networking with other agencies and even other states to bring the best information available to the City of Brownwood. Testing during construction will provide data to support that safeguards are in place. She further explained that if Environmental Protection Agency rules change, then TCEQ will adapt and change their process or rules to meet the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
In April, the preliminary engineering plans were approved by TCEQ. Once approval is given for construction, there would be no timeline in which that approval expires, giving the council time to decide when to move forward. Approval stands for construction of delayed projects; however, if state or federal legislation changes during the interim of approval and construction, she advised that a review by TCEQ would be a good idea.
The steps that the city is taking to be ready for worsening drought conditions was acknowledged and appreciated by Brookins and her staff.
“We appreciate the challenges you are facing and that you are dealing with the drought and water shortages. Again, I want to commend you for doing this because there are a lot of communities that are not putting plans in place,” said Brookins. “We came close to running out of water in some communities last summer. And again we commend you for working on this and putting plans in place to keep that from happening to your community. We are here to help you in any way we can and support you.”
Safety of the drinking water was addressed. Brookins said that TCEQ is a regulatory agency and that it is their duty to make sure that all water systems meet the federal standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
James “Red” Weddell addressed the audience regarding water safety and the details of each of the processes as to what contaminants, viruses and pathogens they remove, and how they work. Weddell explained that the proposed plans for the supplemental water plant will have two times the barriers for filtration that a surface water treatment plant (such as the currently used plant) is required to use.
“Your plant is essentially looking at double the barriers a surface water treatment plant is required to have,” said Weddell.
Mayor Stephen Haynes asked about the odor and taste of the proposed plant’s end product drinking water. Weddell stated that the water would be similar to bottled water.
“I really think it’s going to taste like bottled RO distilled water, not spring water, but have a pretty bland taste,” said Weddell.
Councilman Jerry DeHay asked about the quality of the water from the proposed plant, would it be equal or better than the current plant.
Weddell explained that the plant will have spare RO, UV and microfiltration barriers for safety, in case one fails, or needs to be cooled down, and that output capacity will not be affected.
“Safety, we believe that can be achieved, that’s why we are working with verification processes,” said Weddell. “Four of the TCEQ engineers have a total excess of 60 years experience, you have the best of the best working for you.”
Weddell also informed to the council that California, New Mexico and Texas (in Big Spring) have similar pilot plants under construction, that the reverse osmosis treatment process has been used in Texas since 1999 and that there are approximately 36 active micro ultra filtration plants in use in Texas.
Brookins has 22 years experience and is one of the four member TCEQ team that has been meeting with the City of Brownwood since November. Her areas of expertise include TCEQ regulations for public water systems, the TCEQ enforcement process, overseeing TCEQ’s Remediation programs, overseeing various TCEQ water quality, air, and waste programs, and assisting the agency in homeland security activities (responding to disasters such as hurricanes and other response activities). She has also served as the TCEQ’s point of contact for Senate Natural Resource Committee matters and other legislative matters. Weddell has been with TCEQ for 22 years and specializes in design and operation of treatment processes for public water systems. Klumpp has been with TCEQ for 9 years and specializes in oversight of public water systems.
See videos below for more details of the presentation.
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