Seventeen projects across various counties are set to receive a portion of the funds, including nearly $483 million for two Upper Trinity Regional Water District projects.
Additionally, the state allocated $125 million for a water treatment plant project in Fort Worth. The city could save approximately $11 million over the life of the loan, per a TWDB news release.
The board administers financial assistance for various water projects through the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas program. The program helps communities mitigate cost by providing low-interest financing, extended repayment terms, deferred repayments and incremental repurchase terms.
The details
The Upper Trinity Regional Water District is using $320.8 million of the state funds to continue construction of the Lake Ralph Hall reservoir in Fannin County and $162 million for the expansion of the Tom Harpool Regional Water Treatment Plant in Denton County, said Jason Pierce, manager of governmental affairs and communications.
The district supplies water to cities in Denton, Dallas, Collin, Cooke, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt and Wise counties, according to documents. The agency also provides water treatment services, and draws water from Lake Lewisville and Ray Roberts Lake through contracts with Denton and Dallas counties, Pierce said.
The reservoir is over 20 years in the making. As the counties it serves continue to grow, the district anticipates needing an additional reservoir by the end of the 2020s and designed Lake Ralph Hall to meet that need. The district submitted a water rights permit in 2003, and construction began in 2021, Pierce said.
“With Ralph Hall coming online, it shifts the supply-and-demand curve further out so it will be another 15 to 20 years before we need another water supply,” he said.
The lake will be about the size of Grapevine Lake when complete but will yield twice the water due to the increased depth of 59 billion gallons, Pierce said. It will also help reduce the impact of continued erosion and restore portions of the original river channel to its natural path. The district plans to deliver 54 million gallons of water from the reservoir per day by 2026.
Zooming in
Concurrently, the district is in the design phase of the water treatment plant expansion located north of Lake Lewisville and south of Celina near Providence Village, Pierce said. The expansion will increase the treatment capacity from 20 million gallons per day to 30 million by 2025, according to district documents.
Construction crews will also build additional administration and maintenance facilities. The second phase of the expansion will increase treatment capacity from 30 million gallons per day to 60 million. The project should move to construction in the next 60 to 90 days, Pierce said.
What else?
Similarly, Fort Worth is using $125 million in SWIFT funds to expand the Eagle Mountain Water Treatment Plant, according to a TWDB news release.
The project provides the city redundancy and flexibility within the system to address future needs. The expansion includes the addition of a raw water ozone system, sedimentation basins, filtration, disinfection and other improvements, per the release.
Part of the expansion includes constructing a 54-inch pipeline as part of the city’s push to increase the water treatment plant’s pumping capacity. The proposed water transmission main would extend from the southwest end of the treatment plant, at 6801 Bowman Roberts Road, to an existing 36-inch water main at the intersection of Willow Springs Road and Blue Mound Road, per city documents.
The context
Since 1957, the Texas Water Development Board has led the state's efforts in ensuring water security, including implementing the State Water Plan. The agency is charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional water and flood planning, and preparing the state water and flood plans, according to TWDB documents.
