Leander City Council unanimously passed a resolution Thursday authorizing the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority to enter a financing agreement with the Texas Water Development Board, which would give the city of Leander $8,130,000 in debt for the construction of a water plant expansion.

The BCRUA was created by the cities of Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock in 2007 to create a three-phase regional water system to deliver water from Lake Travis to the cities.

The cities approved an agreement with Walker Partners LLC for the design of Phase 1C of the project, which expands the water treatment plant and raw water pump station, in April.

In order to finance construction on Phase 1C, the Texas Water Development Board will issue financial assistance of $16,995,000 to the BCRUA, according to the meeting agenda packet.

All three cities must approve the loan, City Finance Director Robert Powers said. Leander’s portion amounts to $8,130,000, while the cities of Cedar Park and Round Rock will respectively owe $4,430,000 and $4,435,000, according to city documents.

“It’s all based on [water] capacity [and plan infrastructure], and the city of Leander owns approximately 47 percent of the capacity, so all the costs are divvied up based on your capacity,” Powers said.

The expansion of the water treatment plant is expected to increase the capacity of the facility from 17 to 30 million gallons of water per day, Powers said.

Round Rock and Cedar Park city councils have not yet approved the financial agreement, Powers said.

Learn more about the project at www.bcrua.org.

Reporting contributed by Jennifer Reiley.