Water district chief outlines plans to improve availability in MW and seven systems amid drought

Mar. 22—MINERAL WELLS — The chief of the water district supplying Mineral Wells and seven area wholesalers outlined steps last week to keep taps flowing as drought stretches toward a likely summer repeat.

It took an $11.8 million budget amendment that will fund several steps led by installation of a reverse osmosis unit to add 4 million gallons a day to the city's supply.

"That is sufficient to supply not only the city of Mineral Wells but all of your (seven wholesale) customers for an indefinite amount of time," Howard Huffman, general manager of the district that owns Lake Palo Pinto, told council members on Tuesday.

A site is being prepared near the Brazos community for the arrival of reverse osmosis units that will clean newly acquired Brazos River Authority water from several sources, including from Abilene.

The water will be taken from where Palo Pinto Creek converges with the Brazos, so it will not require a pipeline from Abilene's Possum Kingdom Lake take-point.

"(BRA) recognizes what we do for 30,000 people," Huffman said, referring to water customers in the city and throughout much of Palo Pinto and southwest Parker counties.

Reverse osmosis equipment is not cheap, at $2.7 monthly rental. Plus, Huffman reminded, those units will need 24/7 staffing.

City Manager Dean Sullivan said the RO units will come online if the lake drops to 854 feet mean sea level. (Friday morning, the city's water supply lake was at 857.56 feet msl, close to 10 feet below its 867 full mark).

"We're continuing to manage this drought," Sullivan said. "It's stretching out longer than it did in '14, '15 and '16. How long it's gone on — that's concerning."

Of course, if rainfall beats climatologists' dry predictions Huffman has been citing lately, that expense will not be made, Huffman added.

For now, though, he described a race to beat drought's impact. He estimated a three-month installation.

"That is a very comfortable schedule for us to pull it off," Huffman said. "We're still on schedule. ... We will have this done by summertime.

"We have got to finish this (RO) site. Nobody has drinking water without this site. Finishing this site is paramount."

Huffman later described the contracts with Abilene and Manvel south of Houston adding 5,000 acre-feet of raw water to supplies, about 1.6 billion gallons.

Since Sept. 1, 2023, those three-year contracts have yielded 182 million gallons of Brazos River water, which is blended at Palo Pinto Creek for treatment before the trip to Mineral Wells.

"We want people to water their yards," Huffman said of water planners' aspirations. "We want people to fill their swimming pools. We want Texans to enjoy Texas."

On another front, the Palo Pinto County Municipal Water District, the lake's owner, has its engineers working to get a water reuse plan for the area into the state's master water plan.

Reuse water is treated wastewater and is suitable for landscaping and construction but is not potable. Huffman quoted the chairwoman of the Texas Water Development Board as saying 30-35 percent of the newly authorized $1 billion Texas Water Fund is dedicated to "new water."

Reuse water is considered new water. Huffman said the water district engineers, HDR, are working on designs to be first in line once that part of the $1 billion starts to flow.

The water leases, including a saltwater discharge pipeline to return salt taken out of it to the river, engineering costs and the water district's recent hire of outside financial advisors, account for most all of the $11.8 million budget amendment. Huffman had led off his plea with a promise not to make mid-year budget amendments a habit.

"We need to get some things done and keep 30,000 people in the water," he said.

In other action Tuesday, the council approved a zone change opening the way for the city's first tattoo parlor. Owners Tod and Nicole Bain have operated First Revelation Tattoo in Weatherford for about 15 years.

The action came after Mayor Pro Tem Doyle Light said he'd had input from residents who were skeptical of the shop.

"I have received several phone calls and several emails that expressed less than stellar comments about your 15-year business in Weatherford," Light said.

Bain acknowledged past troubles but described a turnaround from earlier days.

"I have had people working for me that weren't great people," he said. "I've had a big change in staff over the last four years. I set down a very strict set of values that we follow in my shop that I wish to bring to Mineral Wells. Things happen, I'll be honest, but I think we learn from our mistakes."

The council on Tuesday also jump-started a stalled, large housing development. Set along the east side of Garrett Morris Parkway, The Wells is envisioned as adding working class homes the city lacks if it hopes to grow.

Engineer Remington Wheat said economic feasibility was largely to blame for little progress since a fall 2021 groundbreaking attended by area leaders including U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Weatherford.

The developer asked the council to lower the average home size required in the agreement from 1,500 square feet to 1,200 square feet, among other more minor changes.

"We're excited about bringing this workforce housing to the city of Mineral Wells," Wheat said.

The kick-start was blessed by a unanimous vote.

"I'm thrilled to see this back," Ward 1 Councilman Jerrel Tomlin said.

Tuesday's council meeting was gaveled in by "Council Kid" Rowan Isham. The fourth-grader at Community Christian School is the daughter of Cale and Alyssa Isham of Mineral Wells.