About the project
The 70-year-old purification plant is located on Federal Road in east Houston and serves 1.9 million residents, Ravi Kaleyatodi, the senior assistant director at Houston Public Works, said during an April 14 service delivery committee meeting.
However, Kaleyatodi said the facility’s infrastructure is at risk of failing and has an estimated service life left between one to two years, according to the presentation.
“The majority of the assets are coming to the end of their useful life,” he said. “Some of the key areas that it serves are Downtown Houston, [the] Texas Medical Center and the Ship Channel. This is one of the most important infrastructures that the city owns and operates.”
Although the facility has the capabilities to pump up to 362 million gallons of water a day, the facility is only able to pump an average of 239 million gallons a day at this time.
Kaleyatodi said Houston Public Works looked at different options for repair, such as upgrading parts of the existing plant, but ultimately decided on building a completely new plant since it will have the shortest turnaround schedule, as well as minimize the impacts to ongoing operations and extend the service life of the purification plant by decades.
What’s next
The project is anticipated to begin construction in 2029, be completed by 2034 and is expected to cost between $3 billion to $4.2 billion, said Samir Solanki, Houston Public Work’s finance director.
"Funding can be tricky for something as significant as the East Water Purification Plant, especially when you’re talking about billions of dollars,” Solanki said.
Solanki said city officials are in the process of applying for $966 million in State Water Implementation Funds for Texas, and $2 billion from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, a federal credit program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency for eligible water and wastewater infrastructure projects, according to the EPA. The project will also utilize $1.1 billion in revenue bonds and a local contribution from the city of Houston for $45 million.
Houston City Council members will vote on the first application for SWIFT funds April 30, and will submit the application to the Texas Water Development Board May 12, with the hopes of the application's approval by the board in July.
Something to note
Solanki said the project is expected to raise water bills. However, City Council will vote on a comprehensive cost of service study in two weeks to help the city and residents understand future rate increases over the next five to 10 years. The study will take a year to complete, Solanki said.
