The $100 million McKinney pump will be paid for by the NTMWD Regional Water System funds and is expected to break ground in late 2023. Once completed in 2025, the pump will work next to the city’s existing station on Redbud Boulevard.
“It is fairly commonplace to add a pump station, especially as regional systems like ours experience growth and expansion,” a NTMWD representative said.
McKinney’s Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council both unanimously approved of adding the pump and its accompanying water storage tank at their meetings in September and October, respectively.
“[NTMWD officials] are proposing to have one tank, but ultimately their plan would be to have two tanks,” said Director of Planning Jennifer Arnold at the Oct. 3 council meeting.
Once the McKinney pump is installed next to the Redbud pump, they will work together to meet demands by acting as a main source to distribute water to smaller sites across the city.
“This is a notable project because it is a critical component of water delivery from the newly constructed Bois d’Arc Lake,” the NTMWD representative said.
The Bois d’Arc Lake was another NTMWD project completed in October 2022 in Fannin County. The reservoir and dam were built to ensure a larger supply of water for the Leonard Water Treatment Plant, expected to be finished in Spring 2023, and then dispersed to pumps like the ones in McKinney.
“When operational next year, the [LWTP] will be able to treat and deliver up to 70 million gallons of drinking water per day to the District’s service area,” according to a NTMWD announcement.
The NTMWD was first established as a wholesale water provider in the early 1940s, later becoming an official district serving 10 cities spanning several North Texas counties in 1951. Today, the district supplies water to over 2 million people across 12 cities in North Texas.
“With approximately 55,000 people moving to our service area every year, there is an increase in water needs,” said the representative.
Collin County alone had a considerable population increase in the last five years, expanding from 886,633 in 2016 to over a million residents in 2021, according to recent census and population data. Once built, the pump should help ease any strain on existing pumps in the area working to provide water to new and existing homes.
