BY RACHEL LELAND
By the numbers
One more thing
The plant is the first pumping station in the city to have its own full- functioning lab for testing water quality, with a pipe that brings water directly to the lab. The other pumping stations have only portable instruments. The plant’s operations building will also serve as a shelter for first responders and city staff during a natural disaster. In the future, the plant will be expanded to double its water pumping capacity to 20 million gallons per day, Gilmore said. “The main thing for [doubling capacity] is getting an extra basin here, and then pretreatment capacity will be doubled,” Gilmore said. A date to build the additional basin and double the pumping capacity of the Surface Water Treatment Plant has not yet been set.
While city officials said they hope the new plant will save money in the long run, Pearland residents saw their water rates go up 14% this year and 13% last year to pay for water infrastructure, including the Surface Water Treatment Plant. Pearland residents aren’t the only ones who will pay more for their water; recently, Manvel officials announced residents would pay a 14.9% higher base rate for their water bills, citing rising infra- structure and maintenance costs. Of all the sources from which Pearland draws its water, the wholesale water it purchases from Hous- ton is the most costly to the city, Epperson said. While savings were a contributing factor to Pearland’s decision to build the Surface Water Treatment Plant, Epperson added that diversifying the city’s options in the event any one source is compromised, such as a groundwater well going down, was a major factor in investing in new water infrastructure.
Pearland’s proposed water, sewer rate changes
Year-over-year growth
+14%
FY 2023-24
+17%
FY 2024-25
+17%
FY 2025-26
+11%
FY 2026-27
+8%
FY 2027-28
0%
5% 10% 15%
20%
NOTE: FUTURE INCREASES ARE PROJECTED AND NOT YET FINAL. SOURCE: CITY OF PEARLAND/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Project timeline
How water is treated
What you need to know
Coagulation: removes solids from water by manipulating electrostatic charges of particles Flocculation: solids form larger clusters, or flocs, to be removed Sedimentation: clarifies the water before it’s pumped through the membrane filtration Filtration: polishes off the water in the same way a refrigerator filter polishes off tap water Disinfection: chlorine added to disinfect the membrane-filtered water
June 2020 : construction begins
At any given time, the Surface Water Treatment Plant will have five operational staff and anywhere from three to five maintenance staff, Gilmore said. “The plant will run 24 hours a day between Monday and Saturday, and it will be off for four hours on Saturday and [Sunday],” Gilmore said. The plant will send the water to pumping stations at Kirby Drive and FM 521 where it will be pumped throughout the city.
November 2023: construction finishes January 2024: plant becomes operational Looking ahead: There are plans to build a second water storage tank.
SOURCE: CITY OF PEARLAND/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: CITY OF PEARLAND/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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