Treated wastewater leaving Anna's Hurricane Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant could become part of the region's drinking water supply under a state application the North Texas Municipal Water District is preparing to file.
The district's board is scheduled to vote Thursday, Oct. 22, on a resolution authorizing its executive director to apply to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the right to reuse the plant's return flows. The item is on the consent agenda and is also listed for the board's Water Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Staff put the cost of the filing, including legal work by Lloyd, Gosselink, Rochelle & Townsend, at $70,000 from the district's operating budget.
How the water would move
The city of Anna owns and operates the Hurricane Creek plant, according to the staff memo. The plant discharges into the Lake Lavon watershed, where the district already has intakes. The district wants permission to send the plant's return flows down to Lavon Lake and pull them out again there for its member cities and customers.
A 2023 regionalization agreement between the district and Anna already allows the district to divert and reuse those flows, the memo says. A state water right is the remaining step.
How much water
The figures in the board packet differ slightly. The staff memo says the plant is permitted to discharge up to 16 million gallons a day. A draft supplement to the district's water conservation plan, prepared by Freese and Nichols and attached to the item, says the plant's current discharge permit allows 2.5 million gallons a day and is permitted for eventual expansion to 16 million.
At the full 16 million gallons a day, the reuse would add up to 17,940 acre-feet a year to the district's supplies, the supplement says. The district plans to claim all current and future flows from the plant.
