New details emerge from sewer town hall

The city of Wimberley hosted a wastewater project town hall meeting with the intent of bringing residents up to speed on the current status of the project. While much of the information was an overview of the project, there were some impactful new details revealed during the presentation made by City Administrator Shawn Cox

Difficulties ahead for city-owned plan

Many of the questions posed by the crowd at the Wimberley Community Center were centered on the potential for the city to build its own treatment plant instead of having Aqua Texas treat the effluent. While the conversation was rather nuanced a times, the answers pointed to a simple conclusion. If the city wants to build its own treatment plant at this point, there are difficulties and likely delays involved.

“It took five to six months to go before the Texas Water Development Board to request and get an approved change in scope (for the Aqua Texas plan),” Cox said. “We also have five to six months once everything is finalized for contraction to be done. As we consider options and look at alternatives, I keep that in the back of my head.”

Cox said that when discussing alternatives to the Aqua Texas plan, he has asked the TWDB what it would take to move forward with the city-owned plan. He is waiting on a formal response at this time, but if they would require another change in scope or new bids for the treatment plant, it could delay the project another six months on top of the six additional months already needed for the remaining construction.

New creek crossing

When discussing the Aqua Texas plan, the city of Wimberley’s responsibilities essentially end once the sewage crosses under Cypress Creek and reaches Aqua Texas’ system. Cox, who is not directly involved in Aqua Texas’ easement discussions, said that to his knowledge easements have not been obtained for the sewer system to cross Sabino Ranch on the other side of Blue Hole Regional Park. Without that easement, the options for the city system to reach Aqua Texas would be difficult. However, Cox said that there is a property at the end of Blue Hole Lane that is owned by the city across the Creek from Mill Race Lane. While it is still early in the evaluation process, this may be an additional option for the city as a location to cross Cypress Creek and reach Aqua Texas, which already has a sewer collection line running down Mill Race Lane.

Aqua Texas contract

The city of Wimberley has been working on a contract with Aqua Texas to treat the city’s sewage for months. Many expected the contract to be signed before the election, and it was on the agenda multiple times for consideration. However, it was never signed. Cox said that Aqua Texas was not yet ready for the contract to be signed and neither was the city. The contract is now on its twelfth revision. He said there are still negotiations taking place.

Unbudgeted

spending

Throughout the process of changing the scope of the project to have Aqua Texas treat effluent, there have been multiple unbudgeted items the city has spent money on that cannot be paid for with the loan from the Texas Water Development Board. This means these funds must come from the city’s general fund.

Cox said that so far $118,418 have been spent on items like new bond council for the potential new bonds required for the change in scope, attorney fees on the Aqua Texas contract, and work with both the U.S. Economic Development Agency and Texas Water Development Board.

Beyond those additional costs, there is an expected $300,000 Wholesale Service Fee which would be paid to Aqua Texas in order to hook up to their system which is also not currently in the budget and cannot be paid for by loan proceeds.

These figures do not include additional expenses associated with the change in scope, like paying to cancel the treatment plant contract with Blackcastle. Funds for these items are either being paid for with money from the loan or, in the case of a portion of the Blackcastle contract, paid for by the EDA grant.

Before some of these items are taken into account, Cox slide on project costs show that the cityowned plan would have cost $6.796 million where the Aqua Texas plan would cost $4.606 million. But, the Aqua Texas plan also forfeited around $2 million in grants and loan forgiveness.