Marble Falls studying future water needs
Marble Falls water treatment infrastructure. File photo
Marble Falls is hiring an engineering firm to conduct a feasibility study of the city’s water treatment plant as local leaders plan for future growth and increasing water demand.
The Marble Falls City Council approved a $169,224 contract with Plummer Associates during its June 2 meeting. The study was identified as a priority in the city’s 2023 Water Master Plan and comes as development continues in southern Marble Falls, including projects such as Roper Ranch and Flatrock Crossing.
City Engineer Jeff Prato said the study will help determine what upgrades are needed to meet future water needs and position the city to pursue grant funding in the future.
“We need this feasibility to help us decide exactly where we need to spend and improve our infrastructure to optimize our situation,” Prato said during the meeting.
Funded through the city’s Utility Improvements Fund, the study will evaluate the plant’s current capacity, identify reliability improvements, and examine options for increasing production.
Place 2 Councilor Dee Haddock said the existing plant was designed to serve a much smaller community.
“When this was designed originally, the problem is that it was designed to meet the needs at the time without consideration or knowledge of what this future would be,” Haddock said.
The city operates a single water treatment plant on Circle Drive that treats surface water pumped out of Lake Marble Falls from a raw water intake on Lakeshore Drive. The intake was recently upgraded, including improvements that raised equipment above the 100-year flood elevation.
While the plant is rated to produce 4.8 million gallons of treated water per day, there are limitations in pumps, filters and pipe sizing that prevent it from consistently reaching that capacity. One goal of the study is to determine the plant’s actual production limits and identify the most cost-effective path for future expansion.