$ 17.9 million water plant resumes activity

After more than six years, the $ 17 million San Benito water plant is back online.

Late last month, city officials reopened the plant after a previous administration closed it as a result of a “malfunction” in 2014.

“We are excited to see this plant move forward and produce quality water for our community,” said City Manager Manuel De La Rosa.

“This plant will provide enough quality water for our community and is designed to accommodate the growth our city has been experiencing and is anticipated to occur in the near future,” he stated.

In mid-2014, the city’s previous commission closed the water plant it opened in 2009 amid concerns that its microfiltration system was malfunctioning at the plant that never produced its six million gallon-per-day capacity, they said. authorities at the time.

After officials closed the plant, they injected more than $ 1 million into the 93-year-old city’s water plant, becoming its main source of water.

Meanwhile, officials filed a lawsuit against companies involved in the design and construction of the plant that opened more than 10 years ago.

In late 2017, the city won a settlement that included $ 1.87 million in cash and $ 3.1 million in services from Evoqua Water Technologies.

At the time, De La Rosa said the city planned to use the money to get the plant back online.

As part of the agreement, Evoqua, formerly Siemens, agreed to perform $ 3.1 million in services, providing technicians to help keep the plant operational while installing the necessary equipment to run it.

As part of the project, teams installed 896 membrane filters in the plant’s basins while updating equipment and software, said city spokesman David Favila.

The company agreed to supply “state-of-the-art enhanced membranes designed to provide the best ultrafiltration available and allow the plant to produce and deliver 10 (million gallons per day) in the future,” Evoqua stated in a previous press release.

Meanwhile, Evoqua trained city teams on “proper maintenance and operation of the plant, which will maximize plant operation and water distribution,” Favila stated.

In February 2019, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved the project’s pilot study, a small-scale test of the processes used in the plant’s operation.

As part of the study, the company evaluated the operating components of the plant while it performed maintenance, officials said at the time.

Meanwhile, crews built a holding pond designed to receive untreated runoff water used in the plant’s filtration system, they said.

“There are many elements that must be verified in this process to guarantee the production of clean and safe water,” said De La Rosa at the time. “This procedure includes plant operators conducting assessments to see if all processes are working as they should. If not, they have to start over to make sure the plant, once opened, complies with all the compliance measures required by the TCEQ. “

In March 2019, officials planned to reopen the plant between August 24 and December 21 of last year.

But by September 2019, De La Rosa had scrapped the calendar.

Background

In 2009, the city inaugurated the $ 17.9 million water plant whose use of solar panels made it a “model” project along the Texas-Mexico border, according to the Texas General Land Office.

The Turner Road plant was built to treat up to 6 million gallons of water a day, 2.5 million gallons more than the city’s old plant, authorities said at the time.

At its grand opening ceremony in October 2009, José Garcés, managing director of the North American Development Bank, called the plant a model for projects along the US-Mexico border.

“This project is one of the most important, not only in the Valley but on the border,” said Arkelao López, project director for the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission, during the ceremony.

Meanwhile, to help pay off the plant’s debt, a previous commission raised water and sewer rates, now some of the highest in the Valley.

Old water plant

For decades, city officials had planned to remove and close its old Stenger Street plant built in 1927.

But after closing the new water plant, officials spent more than $ 1 million to upgrade the 93-year-old plant.

Officials continued to improve the old plant after it ran into problems.

In September 2016 and January 2018, the old plant was temporarily closed, cutting off water service throughout the city.

As part of an agreement, Harlingen temporarily provided water to homes and businesses in the city.

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