The plan for a new $28 million wastewater treatment plant in north Missouri City and an expansion of another are making their way toward construction.
The new wastewater treatment plant site, located between South Cravens Road and Echo Creek Drive, is needed due to the increased development of commercial businesses and residences in the area that will be using this plant, said Dan McGraw, the utilities manager for the city of Missouri City.
The first phase of the project will be able to bring in 2 million gallons per day, and subsequent phases will build on that, McGraw said.
He said when people think of wastewater treatment plants, they likely associate them with a bad smell, but McGraw said Fort Bend County Water Control & Improvement District No. 2 already operates a larger plant in Stafford, so it knows how to manage the wastewater.
“This is a state-of-the-art facility, so as long as we keep it happy and healthy, it will not smell,” McGraw said. “The only time there will be a problem with odor is if the facility lost power, but today there are generators.”
Fort Bend County WC & ID No. 2 purchased about 5.8 acres of land in 1986, and its use was approved for its Wastewater Treatment Plant No. 2, according to city documents presented at the May 6 Missouri City City Council meeting, when the plant was approved.
A lift station, which draws the wastewater to the plant via pipes, was built on the site but not the treatment plant itself. In 2015, the district purchased an additional 8.51 acres adjoining the original tract to accommodate the same development using newer technologies.
The proposed 14.31-acre wastewater treatment plant will include an existing lift station site and several buildings and detention basins, including one to be situated along the Echo Creek Drive portion of the property.
Plant design is expected to be completed in July, with the first phase of construction slated to begin in December, according to documents presented at the council meeting. If construction remains on time, the first phase will be completed in July 2022.
Jones Carter Project Engineer William Sagastizado told the Missouri City Planning and Zoning Commission in March that the treatment plant design also includes plans for a second lift station in later phases.
“The city’s expansion of the Cangelosi Ditch would also include the wastewater treatment plant,” Sagastizado said. “The plant will be online before the ditch is improved.”
Since the plant would be seen from nearby areas, such as residential areas south of Echo Creek Drive, the design includes landscape and fences.
Meanwhile, Missouri City will begin a Phase III expansion at a city-owned plant at 6310 Oilfield Road later this year, McGraw said.
The expansion will increase capacity to handle 4.5 million gallons of wastewater per day, he said. Seven municipal utility districts use the plant for their wastewater. Costello Engineering will design the improvements, McGraw said.
“This future reuse project will bring together an area that includes northern Sienna Plantation all the way to Steep Bank Creek,” McGraw said.
Wastewater Treatment Plant No. 2
S. Cravens Road, Missouri City
