By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members visited the East Springs, a new well site and the water treatment
plant on Monday and again heard the city will likely have to issue $21 million in new
debt for water projects this year and another $14 million for upgrades at the water plant in
four years.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart organized and hosted the tour, which began late Monday
afternoon with a stop at the East Springs pumping complex on the grounds of the city’s
golf course. Joining the city manager were members of the city’s water production
department, including its superintendent, Carlos Canales.
City council members who joined the tour included Mayor Al Arreola, Mayor Pro-tem
Jim DeReus, Councilman J.P. Sanchez, Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez and
Councilman Randy Quiñones.
Before the tour, Burkhart spoke to The 830 Times about what she hoped the tour would
accomplish.
“The first concern is the East Springs (pool retaining) wall and
the deep cracks in a portion of the retaining wall around the East Springs pool, one of
city’s main sources of water, during a tour of the springs on Monday. City Manager
Shawna Burkhart said the portion of the retaining structure underground is also damaged.
(Photo by Karen Gleason)
condition of the wall. It is
totally undermined. They may not be able to see the full undermining, but we have
pictures of that that we can show them, but I want them to see the structure. It’s a 1930s-
era structure, and so I want them to be able to see that.
“The second thing is to take them to (the site of) the test well, where we’re talking about
putting a second well, which is the $14 million issue. (Repairing) the East Springs (wall)
is about a $3 million to $3.5 million issue, and then we want to take them to the water
treatment plant, and that’s something we need to work on, not in this next debt issuance,
but something we need to do in four years, but they need to see the filtration system that’s
going to cost an additional $14 million to replace,” Burkhart said.
After the group, joined by members of the local media drove together to the East Springs
pump house, Burkhart thanked everyone for attending and said,
“We just wanted you
guys to get eyes on what the problems are, some of our water issues.”
The group stopped near the whitewashed concrete of the wall that surrounds the spring
pool of the East Springs, one of the two sources of all the water produced for the city, a
number of surrounding colonias in Val Verde County and Laughlin Air Force Base.
Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez, right, the area where the city wants to drill a new well
to supplement the city’s water supply during a tour of the area on Monday. (Photo by
Karen Gleason)
Burkhart invited Canales to speak to the group about the work that needs to be done at
the East Springs.
Canales began his presentation by telling the group this is the lowest he has seen the
springs in more than 17 years of working with the city. Canales said the springs have
gone down “dramatically” in the last three years because of the region’s ongoing drought.
He also called council members’ attention to the condition of the retaining wall around
the spring pool, pointing out deep cracks and furrows in the concrete.
“We need to handle this as soon as possible,” Canales said of the needed repairs.
“This (cost of the repairs) is estimated in the range of $3 million to $3.5 million to
replace this wall. It is a 1930s structure. This will be part of a $21 million certificate of obligation issuance that we’re looking at in the very near future, and this is just one
component part of it, but this is important because we just had the West Springs go down
because we had a $140,000 part we needed to put into operation, so we were running off
of (the East Springs), so if this one goes down, we would have real problems.
“We have to keep using both of (the springs) off and on throughout the drought, and this
is important to replace,” Burkhart said.
Arreola asked Burkhart what her priorities were among the water projects she has
outlined for the city.
“This (repair to the East Springs retaining wall) is the most urgent. The most important,
for the long-term, for the city, is the secondary well, but this is the most urgent because
we utilize this right now when we have issues with the West Springs,” Burkhart replied.
She added the retaining wall is important because it “holds the water level above our
pumps, so we don’t damage our pumps.”
Burkhart said there is also underground damage at the East Springs wall not visible from
the surface.
“What you can’t see is underneath this structure. It has totally eroded away. It looks like
someone just gnawed at it. Right now, what you can see looks fairly stable, even though
we have cracks and stuff like that, but the problem is underneath it,” Burkhart added.
The group next drove to the site of a proposed new well on the grounds of an archery
range on property the city owns just north of the golf course.
At the well site, an unassuming yard-long square block of concrete topped by a capped
metal tube, Ozzie Lomas, a member of the city’s water production department staff,
introduced himself and spoke about efforts to develop an alternate water source.
“(Currently) the East and West Springs are the only and primary sources (of water). With
that being the case, and the drought hitting us so hard, we need to find new sources of
water,” Lomas said.
Burkhart reiterated that current estimates are $14 million to fully bring the new well
online.
“We’ve only test-pumped this well. That only means we’ve tested quality of water and
volume, how many gallons per minute, so we know it’s a good well that we think we can
bring in for municipal purposes,” the city manager said.
“This is the most important water project we have for the long-term welfare of the city
because we provide water not just for the citizens here in Del Rio, but we provide it for
some of the colonias around the city that are connected, and also, we provide water for
Laughlin Air Force Base, so this is a critical component of our $21 million debt
issuance,” Burkhart added.
Lomas said the new well is expected to produce about 2,500 gallons of water per minute
or about two million gallons per day.
“When do you all anticipate you will be bringing it online?” Gutierrez asked.
“If we get the money in our bank account in June, we can actually do a reimbursement
resolution and start paying our engineers to perform their duties maybe two months ahead
of that, so in April, and if we can jump-start this process, but it’s a solid 18 months to two
years to bring it online,” Burkhart replied.
She told the council members an additional estimated $3 million would need to be spent
to establish a mini-treatment at the Agarita well site in north Del Rio.
The tour next moved to the city’s water treatment plant.
Lomas again spoke to council members, explaining how the plant’s operations can be
monitored and controlled from a central location.
He said there are 16 racks – sometimes called “skids” – of filtration membranes,
cylindrical canisters, in the plant. He said each rack can filter about a million gallons of
water a day.
“Right now, (the plant is) off, but during the summertime, we never turn off. We’re
constantly on. We’re constantly producing water for the entire city,” Lomas said. Lomas also spoke about the history of the plant, which was built after a devastating flood
in the area in 1998.
Finally, the group moved into the cavernous interior of the plant, where Lomas went into
more detail about how “raw” water from the springs is pumped into the plant, run through
the cylindrical filtration “membranes” before being pumped out of the plant and into the
city’s water distribution system.
As the tour ended, Burkhart said, “We do appreciate everybody’s interest in our water
plant and we do appreciate your time,” reminding the council members there will be
another tour in two weeks, of the city’s Silverlake Wastewater Treatment Plant.
After the tour, Arreola said he has visited the various parts of the city’s water system
previously and said he believes the city is moving in the right direction.
“I believe now we’re putting priorities on things that are needed for our citizens, and I am
super, super thrilled that Ms. Burkhart’s main goal and objective for the next three or four
years is to improve our water system, to improve what we have and to find a new water
source,” Arreola said.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
