The details
During the Dec. 2 Bellaire City Council meeting, Bellaire City Manager Sharon Citino said the city will hold a public workshop that will include HDR Engineering, an engineering firm that conducted a condition assessment on the city's wastewater treatment plant.
Citino said questions were raised on the assessment and wanted to use the public workshop as an opportunity to go deeper on it.
"Given the magnitude of the decision of whether to rebuild or decommission our wastewater plant, Mayor [Gus] Pappas thought it was important to hold a workshop focused solely on the HDR condition assessment and provide everyone an opportunity to have their questions answered before making this decision," Citino said in a Dec. 5 email.
According to city documents, the condition assessment was to meant to offer cost estimates for different kinds of improvements, such as resiliency, odor, operations and processes, for the plant.
The backstory
Bellaire residents voted in November to approve two separate bond referendums totaling $70 million to fund stormwater and wastewater projects.
One of the wastewater projects, for $30 million, includes demolishing Bellaire's current wastewater treatment plant and connecting to Houston's wastewater treatment plant.
Assistant City Manager and City Engineer Beth Jones gave a presentation at an Aug. 19 City Council meeting, saying that connecting to Houston's plant would not only save money, but allow the city to repurpose the city's land and create green spaces.
"The city of Bellaire does not have much empty property," Jones said during the meeting. "This is property that the city owns. It is an opportunity for us to demolish a wastewater treatment plant [and] repurpose that land that is much needed for the widening of Cypress ditch."
What residents are saying
During a Dec. 2 Bellaire City Council meeting, residents voiced their concerns on demolishing the plant and connecting to Houston's plant.
Residents James Ong said he is concerned that residents will have to pay more if the city of Bellaire connects to Houston's plant. He said he believes it would be cheaper to rebuild Bellaire's current plant.
"I come from a processed plant background, and rebuilding is not a problem," Ong said during the meeting. "All the plants and refineries I've been to, they're all beyond their end of life, but they keep rebuilding them because it's more economic to do so basically."
Resident Michael Stapenhorst spoke during the meeting and criticized the city for spending the money on the project despite "record inflation, record high construction costs, shortage of labor and materials, and supply chain problems throughout the country." As a result, he believes the project will put a financial burden on residents. He also said he doesn't want the city of Bellaire to rely on the city of Houston to treat Bellaire's water supply.
Stay tuned
The public workshop for the wastewater plant will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 9 at Bellaire City Hall Council Chambers, 7008 S. Rice Ave., Bellaire.
Bellaire spokesperson Cheryl Bright said the public is able to speak during the public workshop.
