With population expected to continue growing, the city of Shenandoah is addressing its long-term need for water resources while also meeting state mandates with a new water plant.
The city has three water plants but will shut down Water Plant 1 this year, Shenandoah Public Works Director Byron Bevers said.
The plant is the least used of the three existing plants and only produces about 250 gallons of water per minute, compared to more than 1,000 gallons per minute from plants 2 and 3, Bevers said.
Shenandoah's new water plant is expected to have a similar capacity as Water Plants 1 and 2, with construction on the plant to begin in two to three years, Bevers said. The city's early projections estimate the project to cost about $3.2 million.
"The time frame is we are doing the planning phase now," Bevers said. "The next budget year I anticipate we will do the engineering phase, and then following that we will actually get into construction."
The city's new water plant comes at a time when communities in Montgomery County are working to meet the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District's requirements to reduce their groundwater use by 30 percent by 2016.
However, rather than join the San Jacinto River Authority's Groundwater Reduction Plan, which has resulted in pipeline installation under roadways throughout The Woodlands, Shenandoah has taken a different route.
The city has partnered with the city of Panorama Village, also in Montgomery County, to meet the requirements by building a water well to the Catahoula Aquifer, which is considered an alternative water source, Bevers said.
"Since we did not join [the San Jacinto River Authority's Groundwater Reduction Plan] the [Lake Conroe] water is not really an option," Bevers said.
The Panorama Village water plant became operational in November 2013 and pumps more than 2,000 gallons per minute, Panorama Village Mayor Howard Kravetz said.
"It has been a great project," he said. "The reason they decided to drill up here is when you get south of Hwy. 105 towards The Woodlands, the [Catahoula] water becomes very brackish. As a result, it's very expensive to clean that water up so [that] it's potable. That is why they are drilling more Catahoula wells up in this area."
While tapping the Catahoula Aquifer will present a challenge to south Montgomery County, the city of Shenandoah is considering it as the source for its future water plant. Officials said they are exploring the cost of possible water treatment options—such as reverse osmosis or water blending—in order to meet Texas Commission on Environmental Quality water requirements, officials said.
"We can go into the Gulf Coast Aquifer, which is the Evangeline or Jasper [aquifers], or we can go into the Catahoula Aquifer if the numbers in the water are appropriate and cost effective," Bevers said. "That is a part of what we are going to be investigating, as well as location and price estimates and what are the advantages."
