City Commission - workshop

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . Thank you. Thank you. so so Let's go.

yes sir thank you mr city manager mayor commissioners thank you for the opportunity to present uh we did lose one of our presenters but we're in good hands here who had to depart for a family issue So, thank you. I think most of you have heard the presentation before, except for Mr. Fallak. Mr. Fallak, congratulations. Again, I don't think we've had a chance to present to you on this important project. So, we will start and we'll be as brief as possible, but please feel free to ask questions during the presentation. And hopefully we can get those answered for you. I will pass this off to our engineer and our hydro geologist. Our engineer is Sergio Espinosa with Corolla engineers. 1 of the reasons that we like Corolla is that they do everything water. That's it only water wastewater drainage, but nothing else. So. If it has to do with water, they do it, and they've been a great partner with us for years. So we'll go ahead and start this presentation. Again, please ask any questions at any time. Thank you.

Mayor and commissioners. Today we're going to present this project, and I'm going to introduce the team, talk about the pre-drilling options that we made, the post-drilling recommendations, the recovery and water production overview, the timeline, and then the discussion. The team today here with us is the McKinley Public Utility, Carollo RWH, they're our hydrogeologists, Juice Toxandia, they're our experts of deep well injection, GDJ Engineering is doing surveying and some civil. Milnet Architectural Services is our architect for the project. And TIDG is doing some civil work as well. So this is how the project started. We were secured by MPU to look at 170 acres they have across their existing water plant. These 170 acres were looked at to see how much water can be found and also the quality of water that we can get from those sites. If you look at the screen, we had four test wells. So the original assumption was to drill four test wells in order to determine the quality and the volume of water that we could get from the groundwater. We were assuming 8 MGD of raw brackish groundwater at 75% recovery gives 6 MGD of potable water. And we were assuming 6 wells, 4 shallow and 2 deep. Again, this is pre-drilling assumptions. Afterwards, we went ahead and drilled the site. After drilling the site at those four locations, it was determined by the hydrogeologist, RWH, that we can actually get more water. We can actually get five sites instead of four, and we can actually get 10 MGD out of the groundwater instead of the eight. In addition, now we are proposing 90% recovery, which is nine mgd of potable water of consumption for the residents. And we're proposing 13 wells at the five sites. And now we're looking at five deep, five intermediate, and three shallow. Okay, this is a table that basically shows the well yield and how much potable water we're going to have for that area for the residents. If you look over to the right at 90% recovery, we have a 10 MGD production of well field, and then the finished water flow is 9 MGD. Down in the bottom rows, you see that there's some blending criteria in order for us to blend the waste coming out of the RO system. Over to the right, you're looking at 3.4 MGD if you blend with surface water. And if you were to blend with raw groundwater, you're looking at 4.9 MGD. What are these numbers? Well, these numbers are the quantities of water that you have to use in order to blend the waste in order to meet the discharge permit limit, which is 12,720. Basically, this answers the question why we need deep well injection, because if we don't implement deep well injection for the waste injection of the brine, we would have to use those amounts of water over to the right, the 3.4 and the 4.9. This is an example of the RO facility. You have the water coming in, goes through those membranes that you see to the right, and then the brine, which is the waste, comes out through the bottom and into the deep well injection. These are conceptual RO building models. We started with conceptual layouts. This is an overview of the equipment inside the RO building. And then this one is the latest model that we've talked to the client about. We've shown the parking lot over to the west, and then we show the chlorination and the chemical storage facilities to the right. And this is another conceptual layout and another view. We're presenting there a tank as well. This is the commitment timelines basically that we're showing. This is based on a swift loan that we got from the Texas Water Development Board. It's basically a very low interest rate loan. The first year commitment is 30 million, the second year is 49.3, the third is 51.3, the fourth is 44.8 million, and the final year is 19.7 million. We are recommending four design packages. Why are we recommending four design packages? Well, we're trying to attract local contractors, and we're trying to make sure that we get the best bang for the buck. So instead of doing one project for the whole thing, we're breaking this into four different design packages. Those design packages are as follows. The raw water production wells, which are 13 wells. FOR 35.7 MILLION. RAW WATER YARD PIPING AND ELECTRICAL FACILITIES FOR THE RAW WATER WELLS, THAT'S 10.1 MILLION. THE ACTUAL DESALINATION PLANT AND RELATED FACILITIES, 121.6 MILLION. THE DEEP INJECTION WELLS IS 15.2 MILLION. AND THE TOTAL CONSTRUCTION COST THAT WE'RE LOOKING AT AS OF TODAY IS 182.7 MILLION.

AND LET ME JUST ADD, COMMISSIONERS, THIS OF COURSE IS JUST ESTIMATES. THE MORE CONTRACTORS THAT WE CONTRACT to bid this project, the better that will vote for us. So these are just estimates. There's a small contingency on these estimates, but the key is to attract as many contractors as we can during this bid process.

And this is our project timeline. The legend shows those four design packages and when we are doing the work, design, bidding, and construction. So as early as May of 2027, we're going to bid the raw water production wells, which are the 13 wells we discussed. And we're going to bid the yard piping and electrical for the raw water wells. And then we go into awarding of the contracts. And the next milestone is, if you look at March of 2028, we'll be awarding the notice to proceed for the yard piping and electrical. And then over to the right on June of 2028, that's when we plan to complete the 13 raw water production wells. And then if we scroll to the right, we're looking at substantial completion of the diesel plant by December 30 of 2030. The next steps that we're looking at for this project is to process the design contracts, obtain TCEQ discharge final permit for the surface disposal, which we've already applied. Obtain the Eilato County drainage district permit in order for us to discharge into the ditch as a second option, and begin the design for the four bid packages.

And just one more note, just speaking with our water systems director just a little while ago, typically in the heat of the summer, August, not this late in September, it's surprising, but we have been, 35 was a high peak for us, 35 million gallons a day. That's a high peak. We are currently at 40 million gallons a day. and so probably this last week this week we hit 40 million and we're still trucking at 40 million gallons a day so it's hot might be i'm not certain in saying this but it feels like the hottest fourth quarter that we've ever seen in in july august and september so it's a lot of water that our water system is pumping out daily

The 13 wells that you mentioned, of those, how many are going to be raw water production?

All 13? All 13. So of the 13, six will be deep, seven will be shallower. By deep, we mean anywhere between 8 to 850 feet deep. Shallow, anywhere between 350 to 400 feet deep.

How many deep injection wells are you going to put?

Two.

Depth?

that's probably in the range of five to six thousand feet deep you know why i asked it right you're not going to inject it right back in the same oh no absolutely totally different strata yes sir totally different aquifer and strata that's at least and liz correct me if i'm wrong but that's between five and six or six and seven

be permitted through tcq so that there is no um yeah that's correct that's correct so and the analysis uh to get us that for how many years this will pump at that at that capacity uh in previous discussions it was 50 years um is that about right we models simulated everything through a 30-year continuous production period kind of a worst case scenario that you're going to produce this groundwater every day, all day, continuously for 30 years. So your operational procedure that you're going to follow will be less than that, but it should maintain throughout that and beyond.

Right. Yeah. And that's pumping at 10 million gallons a day for data.

And I guess the last thing is what will this do for our dependency to the river?

And that's the main question commissioners when we started this project. absolutely yes so 18 months ago when the reservoirs that feed the rio grande valley which is the lifeblood of the valley reached 17 that was a huge concern for the well-being of this city and so we decided to undertake a design for a water supply that does not depend on the rio grande river so this is independent water it's an additional water supply for mcallen and um That's a huge – it gives us redundancy at the north plant, which is 10 MGD, 11 million gallons per day. Our south plant's rated at about 54 million gallons per day. It's an additional water source, and most of our growth is in North McGowan. So there's several benefits to it.

54 million gallons per day production?

No, that's the capacity rating of the south plant.

Okay, so what will be the production for this plant, for instance?

Okay, so right now, great question, right now that is a 11 million gallon per day water plant. and or 10 million gallon per day the additional brackish groundwater plant would be 10 so together combined it would be 20 million gallons per day and what is the consumption of the city of mccallan per day right now right now is 40 and that varies in the heat of the summer right now we're peaking at 40 million gallons uh cold and wet december and january we're probably at about 18 to 20 million gallons a day

So it will be kind of equal? Or we're going to have 20 million behind?

Well, that's the beauty of this. So we will be able to throttle this plant to whatever our south plant. That has to do with water rights and how much our water allocation is. So we use a certain amount at the south, a certain amount at the north. But we can vary the production at the north plant to meet the city's demands all year long. Okay. So...

When the casing is laid for this, is this similar to like when you drill for oil to create oil production? Where you pour concrete and then the concrete rolls back up to do the casing? That's a Liz question.

Liz?

Yes?

What was your question? I'm sorry.

Is this similar when you're drilling? Like you went for oil, you're drilling, you pull out the drill bit, then you lay the pipe, and then you use the slurry to put the concrete so it flows back up?

Yeah, so you'll have to pressure cement the annular portion of the upper section so you don't, it's more of a protective, so you don't commingle aquifers. Below that, you set your screen and you're producing from the interval below the cased off section that's cemented in.

All right. And is this just like a typical preparation that would not involve fracking?

No, yeah, we don't do fracking. We purchase a steel screen that's manufactured at a slot size so that we don't produce sand. So it's just a manufactured screen with a slot.

With all the challenges that we're seeing up in Corpus and places where these desal plans have run into viability issues, I'm sure there's been lots of lessons learned. We are taking those lessons to heart, and so this will be a completely viable product that we will not have to come back to.

Absolutely, absolutely. So obviously there's a cost difference. That's five times the estimate of ours, number two. That's one of the reasons that we're breaking this up into four bid packages. one contract one general contractor would be easier on the engineer for sure to manage one contractor but that one contractor would place his um his uh ten fifteen percent markup on every single and and there's such it's a wide scope of work so there's electrical there's the facility there's the piping there's the wells so definitely that general would just go out and subcontract those four different

I think that's a great idea, and I think it helps control costs. I think everybody that's in business understands how diversifying those sources can help in the overall cost structure. Of course, the one thing you've got to worry about is pointing fingers if anything goes wrong on who's done what and who's covering those costs. whether they're overruns or there's issues with the performance. So I assume the professionals are going to handle that part of it. But I think the method by which you're pursuing this and the four different bid packages, I think it's a great.

We've just submitted our application with the Bureau. So we received the $9.6 million grant from the Bureau of Reclamation last year. They just opened up the application process. Actually, it's closed. We did submit already for the second phase, and we're... Please pray for the town public utility. We are hoping that we land an additional large...

um amount of money for this project on the phase two application so i think it's great i commend staff for pursuing this marketing we're heading it but it's something that mcallen can show leading in the region and making sure that our water source remains not only viable but redundant for the foreseeable future so kudos to y'all absolutely thank you thank you commissioner so let me ask the million dollar question

Given the cost of the loans that you're going to take out, and given the fact that in the last year there's been an increase on our water users with MPU, do we anticipate an additional water increase?

Well, we definitely hope not, Commissioner. All that is going to depend, like I said, those are all estimates. We haven't broken ground. Our first package will be bid late fall. uh... which is the production wells that estimate was thirty five million dollars the lesser expensive the least expensive that we can construct each phase may not need an additional rate increase if everything holds the way our estimates hold we will not need i say we will not need an additional increase typically it's it's very typical for a utility on average three to five years once every three to five years there's some nominal increase to keep up with inflationary cost and maintenance and operation. But regarding this project, we think that the last year's increase will cover this project.

What was the original project cost when we spoke about this more than- For this project alone was at $185 million.

Thank you. Yes. And we will keep you updated, Mayor, Commissioners. We'll keep you updated after, I would say after every phase, just so that you all know how we're progressing and what the costs look like as we go.

We have a responsibility to our water users and taxpayers.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you.

And I know that our water users, no matter what, they want their water. So we're one of the lowest in the region. And even if we have to jack it up a little bit, we need to provide water. Yes. So I know that even if we would have to, our citizens usually understand because they know we're very fiscally responsible and conservative. So I'm not concerned about that.

Even with this increased commissioner, we're actually below the valley average and that is West local Harlingen Donna Brownsville mission Edinburgh. We're right below the valley average over the typical 10,000 gallon per month. consumption of an average resident. And that's kudos to my staff and how they run their departments to be able to pull off a project, undertake a project of this scope, and be under the Valley average is just phenomenal on their part. So thank you. Very well.

Thank you.

And I believe this is the end of our workshop. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes.

this concludes the workshop of the mccallan city commission workshops are held on the second and fourth monday of each month at 4 p.m in the city commission chamber located on the third floor of mccallan city hall the public is always welcome to attend or view online thank you for staying informed and engaged with the city of mccallan