exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

Residents within unincorporated areas of Walker County will receive a slight reprieve on their city of Huntsville water bills.

Facing backlash from residents of neighboring subdivisions, the Huntsville City Council opted Tuesday to reduce the water rate multiplier for customers who live outside of the city limits.

Last year, council gave approval to a plan that allowed the city to increase its multiplier to 1.75 from 1.25 for water customers that reside outside of the city limits. Some residents of the Timberwilde subdivision say that the 1.75 multiplier has caused their water bills to jump to nearly $300 to $600 per month.

Sherman leaders took a step toward approving a new revenue stream this week based on growth within the city. The City Council received an update this week on proposed impact fees, which would place a one-time fee on future development based on the impact it has on road, water, and wastewater resources.

The chairman of The Woodlands Storm Drainage Task Force has announced plans to expand the scope of the group formed in 2016, adding the issues of surface and ground water access and supply to the duties the nearly 40-member committee advises on and discusses.

New Braunfels Utilities flipped the switch Tuesday on a plant that will more than double the volume of wastewater the growing community can treat. The Gruene Wastewater Treatment Plant is operational after two and a half years of construction. The plant, which cost the city-owned utility $58 million to build, will replace the old Gruene facility just down the road.

All Rockwall residents served by RCH Water Supply should boil their water prior to use, according to a boil water notice issued Friday. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality required RCH Water Supply to notify all customers to boil their water prior to consumption due to reduced distribution system pressure.

A new plan unveiled this week would bring water and wastewater service to 61 areas in the city of Dallas that lack the basic utilities that are commonplace elsewhere. (Read the plan at the bottom of this article.) But some residents who been hearing utility service promises for decades will be asked to keep waiting.

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has given the Liberty Hill mayor a 60-day notice of intent to file a federal lawsuit against the city claiming its wastewater treatment plant has violated the levels of nutrients it can release into the South San Gabriel River 3,108 times since 2015.

The City of Irving Water Utilities Department is working with RedZone Robotics to inspect the Hackberry Creek wastewater interceptor. The project is scheduled to start Sept. 14 and will run through Oct. 5, weather permitting.

The Odessa City Council voted on multiple items during Tuesday night’s council meeting including approving increases to rates for water, sewer, solid waste and raising the tax rate for the 2020 tax year. Assistant City Manager of Administrative Services Cindy Muncy told council during the virtual meeting that this would be the first approval of an ordinance to raise water, sewer and solid waste rates by 2.5 percent.

When Stacy Rist received a letter last October about Granbury’s plans to place a wastewater treatment plant near her RV business, the specifics went right over her head. Bennett’s Camping Center and RV Ranch, which is a barbed-wire fence away from the planned sewage plant at 3121 Old Granbury Road, has been in Rist’s family since 1972.

The city of Marble Falls received a $2.5 million grant for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant that won’t wash out in a flood as it did in October 2018. The grant was announced Thursday, Sept. 3, at a Capital Area Council of Governments‘ presentation at Lakeside Pavilion in Marble Falls.