exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

Pouring cooking oil, grease and fat down the drain is bad for pipes — and your wallet. Over time, those materials harden in pipes and city sewer lines, creating blockages that could back up in your home sink or neighborhood. The Cease the Grease campaign is instead encouraging people to drop off used cooking oil, fat and grease for recycling at spots across North Texas.

McKinney is working to become more efficient in its water conservation efforts. Next year, the city will have a new water source with the upcoming Bois D’Arc Lake in Fannin County, about 60 miles north of McKinney. The $1.6 billion Bois D’Arc Lake project will act as a reservoir for the North Texas Municipal Water District’s service area, which includes McKinney.

The Lower Colorado River Authority will designate zones on the Highland Lakes chain where commercial dredging facilities could operate, but only after the companies complete the permit process. The LCRA Board of Directors on Dec. 14 approved an amendment to the Highland Lakes Dredge and Fill Ordinance, giving the general manager the ability to designate places where commercial dredging facilities could operate. The amendment doesn’t apply to private homeowners and property owners who remove sand and sediment around their docks and lakeside structures. 

During standard water quality sampling, a raw, untreated water sample from a well located near Tippecanoe street indicated the presence of E. coli bacteria. The well came to San Antonio Water System as a part of the former BexarMet system. SAWS shut down the well immediately based on the test result and will disinfect it before putting it into further use.

Protecting Texas’ vulnerable groundwater supplies raises a challenging dilemma: How can you motivate people to stand up for an underground resource they cannot see? So we made a video to bring this vital resource to life. This year, EDF released “Beneath the Surface and Above: The Journey of Groundwater.”

The Texas Water Development Board is ready to arrange $5,359,828 in financing to help the City of Roma upgrade its aging wastewater system. The board is set to approve a request at its Thursday monthly session for a $2,431,000 loan and $2,928,828 in principal forgiveness from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Roma provides 5,647 wastewater service connections, however, the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was built in 1999.

An odd-looking device will soon take up residence in the Trinity River near Downtown Fort Worth. The Tarrant Regional Water District and other community partners are investing in two solar-powered waterwheels. The giant wheel-based machines are placed in flowing waterways and will collect and remove floatable pollution. It's been said that the waterwheels look like a cross between an old grain mill and a covered wagon.

Sugar Land residents will begin to see new utility and solid waste rates within the next few weeks. According to a news release from the city of Sugar Land, utility rate increases of about $10 per month for residential customers will go into effect on New Year’s Day. City council in September approved the increased rates.

The San Antonio River Authority (SARA) board elected officers for 2021- 23 at its Dec. 15 meeting, but Dr. Darrell Brownlow won’t be among them. Brownlow, who has served as the authority’s board chairman for 10 years, officially resigned from the board at the Wednesday meeting. He explained that since the end of 2021 was also the conclusion of his four-year term as chairman, he felt it was a good time to exit — both as board chairman and as Wilson County’s representative on the board.

In 2013, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) completed construction of a 2,000-acre wetlands facility near its Richland-Chambers Reservoir in East Texas that allows the agency to take water from the nearby Trinity River, naturally filter it through man-made wetlands cells, and return it to the lake for use in Tarrant County. That innovative project, which can provide up to one-third of the total water supplied from that reservoir each year, has been so successful that TRWD is planning to build a second wetlands facility near its Cedar Creek Lake southeast of Dallas. The TRWD Board of Directors approved an $11.2 million contract at its Dec. 14 meeting with Alan Plummer Associates, Inc. to do the permitting and design work for the new 3,000-acre wetlands site.

Created by dams nearly a century ago, the Highland Lakes in the Hill Country long have been a haven for vacationers and second-home dwellers seeking a scenic escape from city life and the noisy disruptions of traffic and industry. Their serenity is about to be broken. Last month, the board of the Lower Colorado River Authority opted to open all six lakes in the sprawling region — Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls, Travis and Austin — to commercial dredging.

Some residents in Kingsville were without water for four days after a break in a water line near FM 1717 and Hwy. 77. According the Kingsville city manager Mark McLaughlin, the water line break happened sometime Sunday afternoon. “This set of lines is pretty complex, it’s a T-intersection, and it’s feeding water from one side of the city to the other.

To stay in compliance with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the City of Bandera revealed on December 6 it is working on a largescale, phased project to move its wastewater treatment plant out of the flood plain. The current location is close to a section of the Medina River and is in the floodway. Mayor Suzanne Schauman and Public Works Groundwater/ Wastewater Operator John Hegemier, have been involved in discussion and planning of the wastewater plant issue for several years, with The flood of 2016 bringing this matter into focus.

For the last decade, Plano has worked to become more efficient in its water conservation efforts. Next year, the upcoming Bois D’Arc Lake in Fannin County will be a new source of water for the city. However, City Manager Mark Israelson said that will not change Plano’s conservation strategy. “Water is a precious resource,” he said. “Everybody needs it, and we know that it’s needed here in Plano.”

The Texas Water Development Board will be providing $14,501,000 in financial assistance to the City of Dilley for improvements to their wastewater system. The TWDB is scheduled to take action Thursday on a request from this community of approximately 4,500 residents. Dilley owns and operates two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) that currently function independently–one serving Briscoe and the other for city residents.