Water project OK'd by Council

By Janet Jacobs

July 01, 2008 09:24 pm

— Regardless of what the proposed power plants do, the city is going ahead with the smaller of the three water lines between Richland Chambers Reservoir and the Lake Halbert Treatment Plant — a decision made at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The project will cost the city just over $11 million, and should be completed by the early part of 2009.
The low bidder was SJ Louis Construction of Mansfield.
The city undertook the water line project in response to the 2006 drought that badly tapped Navarro Mills Reservoir, which provides most of the county’s drinking water. The city has water rights at Richland Chambers but hadn’t used it until the drought, when a temporary line was put in to draw some water off the creek to Lake Halbert.
This permanent 36-inch line will take as much as 24 million gallons a day from Richland Chambers, in case the city needs it in the future. In anticipation of the two proposed power plants, the city had asked for bids for lines up to 42 inches in diameter.
Because neither of the power plants were willing to commit right now to purchasing the water, and building in Navarro, the city went ahead with the smaller line.
If the plants build here and the county grows so that more water is needed, the plants will have to build a parallel line, said Mayor C.L. “Buster” Brown.
The 36-inch line will be adequate for the immediate needs, even if the power plants build, said Charles Leist, of Flowers and Leist, the engineering firm that designed the project.
“There’s significant capacity in the line to cover water for customers in the early stages,” Leist said. “Right now, the Lake Halbert treatment plant can only treat four million gallons a day. This line carries 24 million gallons a day.”
He added that if the city had a commitment from the power plants, they would have recommended the larger line.
The city chose not to wait on a contract from the power plants because the project needs to go ahead, Brown said.
“We want to get it started so we can get some of this done during the summer months,” he said.
He added that it should be fine for a long time into the future, at least until the county grows significantly.
“In my mind, it’s not conceivable that it won’t be adequate,” Brown said. “Ten million for them, 14 million for us, it’s a lot of water.”
The City of Corsicana treats and sells between 7 million and 10 million gallons a day. Most of the county receives its water through Corsicana’s treatment plants at either Navarro Mills or Lake Halbert.
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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com