The Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority’s water treatment plant in Cedar Park will be expanded using $4 million of ARPA funds. The plant, which draws water from Lake Travis, provides drinking water to Cedar Park, Round Rock and Leander. Expanding it will allow the plant to treat 42 millions gallons of water, an increase of 9.5 million gallons.
Eric Rauschuber, director of public works and utilities for Cedar Park, said the city’s capacity is 2.5 million gallons, and because the city is landlocked with about 1,000 or fewer homes to put in the ground, most of the project will be used for economic development purposes.
Bids for the project will open in February and will take 18 months to complete.
The second agreement allows the city of Leander to build a filling station at its wastewater treatment plant. Dan Grimsbo, executive director of infrastructure for Leander, said the station “will allow trucks—construction or otherwise—to come in and fill up by us using a fire hydrant, which you probably have seen for dust control and irrigation of new plants.”
The second phase of the Leander agreement, which will cost $3.5 million, is the installation of a 12-inch line to the city’s Northline project. It will be used to irrigate the area and maintain wet ponds, which are used to provide permanent and temporary storage of stormwater runoff. Grimsbo said the city estimates the line will supply about 1.5 million gallons of water to the area.
“That would be water that would be used for irrigation or industry that won’t be used [as] potable water, and we won’t have to treat it,” he said. “So that would be, essentially, extra capacity that could be used for actual water use.”
The county agreed in May to fund projects related to water and wastewater projects for both cities. However, the commissioners court had to approve the funding allocation. In total, the county has now allocated $72 million in ARPA funding to water infrastructure.
Precinct 3 County Commissioner Valerie Covey said both projects will “accommodate the growth we’re experiencing in our county without having to drill more wells.”
