HARLINGEN — The Harlingen WaterWorks System is calling for a $180 million 20-year master plan expected to come with water and sewer rate increases, Tim Skoglund, general manager of the Harlingen WaterWorks System, said Thursday.
Based on the nation’s inflation rate, City Commissioner Michael Mezmar estimated what he described as the biggest project the city has undertaken would cost a total of $232 million.
“Because of inflation, we have to address this sooner rather than later,” Mezmar said Thursday in an interview.
During a joint meeting Wednesday, Skoglund told commissioners and WaterWorks board members the project’s cost calls for increases in what he described as one of the Rio Grande Valley’s lowest water and sewer rates.
“The master plan is very fundamental for some major decisions that will be happening in Harlingen,” he said, adding the agency had not conducted a master plan in more than 20 years.
Skoglund said the process would begin with the city’s first water and sewer rate study in about 10 years.
“These are going to be big decisions,” he said. “We’re going to have a difficult process coming up. This is defining what our future is. It is really fundamental for a lot of things.”
Funding sources
During the joint meeting of the City Commission and WaterWorks board, Skoglund told officials the agency is planning to apply to the Texas Water Development Board for low-interest loans.
Last year, commissioners set aside $10 million from the city’s $22 million share of the American Rescue Plan Act to help fund the project.
Master plan
In 2019, the WaterWorks System hired Freese and Nichols, a Fort Worth-based engineering consulting firm, for $500,000 to develop the master plan aimed at planning water and sewer upgrades through 2040.
Meanwhile, WaterWorks will be making plans to build a new sewer plant, consultants said.
“This is obviously a very critical project for the WaterWorks,” Jessica Brown, a vice president with the firm, told officials. “We’re looking at the distribution system, we’re looking at the collection system, we’re looking at what kind of plant capacity we need — how much storage do we need, how much pumping do we need. What goes into this is obviously population projections, water demand projections and wastewater load projections, because all of that we’re putting into the model to determine what kind of capacity we need.”
Water tower
As part of the master plan, WaterWorks is planning to build a new water tower.
“Currently, we have identified that there is a slight gap in total required elevated storage with the current demand per connection,” consultant Matt Schorsch told officials. “We have identified there is sufficient capacity through 2030. We have identified that improvements are going to be necessary.”
Making plans for sewer plant
Meanwhile, the agency is making plans to build a new sewer plant.
“We’re seeing that in 2040 we have a bit of a conflict there in the treatment of plant capacity,” Schorsch said. “There’s no need for any additional treatment plant capacity until that 2040 planning window, based on the current (state) requirements.”
During the project’s 20-year span, officials are planning to work on designing a sewer plant.
“When your annual daily flow reaches 75 percent of your permitted treatment plant capacity, you need to be looking into designing something to expand your treatment plant,” Schorsch said. “At 90 percent, you need to be looking into actually being in construction to be expanding your treatment plant. Based on the 20- to 40-plan scenario, you’re beyond that 75 percent threshold when you need to be in design for a treatment plant and pretty close to that 90 percent threshold where you need to be looking into making a plant expansion.”
Officials are planning to build a sewer plant after the master plan’s 20-year period, Skoglund said.
“Eventually, you’ve got to upgrade that existing plant. Those are beyond 2040,” he told officials. “We’re looking at a new wastewater treatment plant. There are some site acquisition considerations. We need to consider that sooner or later. We can’t wait for 20 to 30 (years) before going after and acquiring the property to do that.”
