Council approves major overhaul of the city’s sewer system

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Darren Dunn

(Seguin) — The city of Seguin is about to conduct a major overhaul of the city’s sewer system. It would represent a significant upgrade over the existing system. The project would have a price tag of approximately $184 million, which makes it the largest publicly funded project ever in Seguin. The city is seeking funding from the Texas Water Development Board’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The fund, which was authorized by the Clean Water Act, provides low-cost financial assistance that can be used for projects like this.

Director of Water/Wastewater Utilities Tim Howe says the city has been working towards this for months. He says a feasibility study was conducted, and a study was also done to look at just the potential financial impact of this project. Howe says this would be big project, but it will also be a project that’s good for the future of Seguin.

“It will require the design and construction of a lift station at the existing Walnut Branch site and a force main, double barrel force main to convey the wastewater to the Geronimo Creek Wastewater Facility for treatment. It will also require the current project that is underway to expand the Geronimo Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant that is currently underway to 5.54 million gallons per day. It will increase that to 12 million gallons per day and then lastly, all the structures associated with the treatment process at the Walnut Branch site will be demolished,” said Howe.

Seguin City Council members on Tuesday questioned what potential challenges had been considered when looking at this project. They said with a project this large, there are lots of opportunities for some really bad things to happen. Howe says anytime that you are dealing with sewage — it’s indeed a challenge. But he says they have a number of contingencies built into their plan, which should have them solve any problems that arise.

“We have to operate two treatment plants during the construction and decommission and everything and strategically transfer flow from one plant to another and time that when the shut down of one and then the conveyance of the flow to the existing plant so there will be challenges. The design of the plant is going to minimize the risk of things going wrong. For example, in the design, we are going to have a double barrel force main that will transfer the flow over and what that means is we are going to have two parallel pipe lines side by side that if we have a failure, as you all know, we can’t turn off wastewater. The flow is going to come so if we do have a pipe failure, we will be able to move the flow from one side to the other so we can continue to transfer that flow and treat that waste while we affect the repair of the pipe. So we are going to build in plenty of redundancy and as much safeguards as we can to protect the city in case of incidents like that,” said Howe. 
 
Before the city decided on this option, it already had plans to expand the Geronimo Creek treatment facility. But this new plan calls for that plant to be expanded even more, so that it can handle all the capacity that’s currently being sent to the Walnut Branch plant, plus any future demand for sewer services in the city. Howe says this is expected to provide enough capacity to handle the city’s wastewater needs for the next 50 to 60 years.
 
Howe says creating a centralized sewage site is also expected to save the city some money, but what may be equally important to some — is that it will get rid of the Walnut Branch treatment facility. That facility has been considered a nuisance by many in Seguin for a long time, because its located in a residential area and it generates odors that can have a huge impact on that part of town.
 
“The advantages of decommissioning of Walnut Branch are many. The inherit odors associated with the wastewater treatment plant process will be eliminated. The big one eliminating the safety risk associated with chemicals for disinfection and then de-chlorination as required by the TCEQ and then it will eliminate the flood risk to that process and to that equipment. The city will also realize savings, operational efficiencies in savings to operate one treatment plant versus two,” said Howe.
 
The immediate odor abatement that will occur when the Walnut Branch plant is decommissioned is one of the reasons why Mayor Don Keil is so excited about the project. Keil says this will make the downtown area even better, and it’s an improvement that’s long overdue. Mayor Keil says this will also allow the city’s parks department to take over this area, and further expanded access to Max Starcke Park. He says it’s just one more reason why this investment is well worth it for the city’s future.
 
“This is probably the biggest improvement that we can do to our downtown that you can ever imagine and for the really the center part of the city in taking a very disagreeable, obnoxious wastewater plant in an area that is going to really enhance our already great park at Starcke where we can use both sides of Walnut Branch Creek there as part of the Starcke Park extension there on the east side. It’s just really going to be a wonderful, wonderful, I think edition to the southern part of our city. It will make the city so much more livable and walkable and I think it will be a great asset,” said Keil.
 
Howe, on Tuesday, also responded to questions about whether or not staff had done its due diligence when investigating the project. He assured the council that the homework had been done. He says the project comes with a big price tag, but the benefits of the project are just as big for the city of Seguin. He says the city was already facing an expensive upgrade that was required for the continued operation of the Geronimo Creek facility. He says this decision just expands that work, while also taking away the need to also try to expand the Walnut Branch plant, which has limited capacity and that could further negatively impact the neighbors in that area.
 
“You’ve heard me speak at length about what is called the 75-90 Rule and that’s the state’s rule that when a treatment plant reaches 75 percent capacity, you are required to be in design for an expansion project and that’s what drove the initial design of Geronimo Creek Expansion. However, the city of Seguin is experiencing so much growth and the need to expand Walnut Branch was imminent so because of that site being land locked, we had a finite amount that we could expand to so it just made sense for the city to move that money that was going to be invested in the expansion of Walnut Branch to the investment at Geronimo Creek and then also realize the advantage of eliminating a wastewater treatment plant located less than half a mile from downtown,” said Howe.
 
The city believes that consolidating that money into one big project, that covers the city’s needs well into 2075, is a good decision. The city hired a consultant to study the city’s water and wastewater rates to determine the impact that this would have on the city’s finances. The study revealed that the city’s wastewater services were growing at a rapid rate. In fact, the city recently agreed to expand its sewer service area and allow a 1,300 home subdivision, north of Geronimo, to connect to the municipal service. The city is pointing to that kind of growth when it says that this project can be done without placing an unfair financial burden on the city’s existing sewer customers.  The growth is projected to continue, and projects also show that the growth will be able to cover the costs of repaying the funds associated with this project. 
 
The council listened to all of the input from staff and questions from the audience, and then unanimously voted to give the city the authority to expand the Geronimo Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility and to begin efforts to eventually decommission the sewer plant on Walnut Branch.