By Matt Smith/Staff Writer
Cleburne City Council members held an extended workshop session Tuesday to hear results and recommendations of a long-range water study.
The study addresses anticipated water needs for the city’s next 50 years. Public Works Director Russell Schreiber and representatives from Freese and Nichols, the engineering firm that conducted the study, delivered findings and options generated by the study.
Lake Pat Cleburne, Lake Aquilla and seven groundwater wells comprise Cleburne’s water supply. The city water plant’s capacity is 15 million gallons per day.
The expected population growth and increase in business and industry makes it vital that city leaders address future water needs now, Schreiber said. He and Mike Morrison of Freese and Nichols presented council members with several options to meet such demands. Council members took no action on the presentation but agreed that the matter needs to be addressed before problems arise.
“Obviously having a reliable water supply is the most critical thing to a city,” Mayor Ted Reynolds said. “It’s not an emergency at this point, but something we need to look at in an urgent manner. We need to study this very carefully before pledging any money to it and make sure we take steps to have a reliable water supply but not go overboard on spending.”
Reynolds said Cleburne, unlike several other cities, has been lucky thanks to good water planning in the past.
“Industrial growth and the Barnett Shale activity caught us off guard a bit,” Reynolds said. “But we need to respond to that, and we will.”
Drilling for natural gas trapped in the Barnett Shale, which lies under much of Johnson County, has increased significantly in the last few years. Drillers use water to bore into the shale.
The Freese and Nichols study dismissed several options such as increasing Lake Pat Cleburne’s water yield and drilling new wells. The first option involved too much cost for a small increase. The second was dismissed because local aquifers are overloaded.
The study’s recommended plan for Cleburne calls for expanding capacity at the water plant by 5 million gallons per day, acquiring water from Lake Whitney and installing a pipeline to pump wastewater to Cleburne’s industrial park on the north side of the city. Industries use such water, Schreiber said, and it would relieve the city’s water treatment plant of a portion of average daily water demand.
The stages of the plan, which would implement between next year and 2014, would cost about $57 million, Schreiber said. Plans beyond that call for further expansions of the water plant and acquisition of additional water sources between now and 2050. Schreiber said such plans would depend upon implementation of the project’s first phase and growth and needs.
Schreiber said the next step is for city staff and council members to study the options and decide on a funding program to implement any approved improvements.
Council members approved the study last June to gather historic water consumption rates in Cleburne and make future consumption projections to determine the best alternatives to develop water sources to meet future demands, Schreiber said.
Matt Smith can be reached at 817-645-2441, ext. 2339, or msmith@trcle.com.
