TWDB boosts plan to transport water from Lake Palestine

Athens Review
By Rich Flowers News Editor

A plan to build infrastructure to transport water from Lake Palestine to the Dallas and Fort Worth-area has received a boost from the Texas Water Development Board.

The board approved a resolution to provide loans totaling $101,620,000 through the Water Infrastructure Fund to the Tarrant Regional Water District.

The vote occurred at a Jan. 21 board meeting. The loans are for the Integrated Pipeline Project, TRWD Public Information Officer Chad Lorance said.

“We’re in the preliminary stages, working together with Dallas to get water from Lake Palestine,” Lorance said. “By working together, we’ll see a substantial savings in costs for the project.”

TWFD reports that the project will include about 180 miles of pipeline with a capacity of 350 million gallons per day. When completed the pipeline network will connect Lake Palestine, Cedar Creek Reservoir, Richland Chambers Reservoir, Joe Pool Lake, Benbrook Lake, and Mountain Creek Lake.

With the Texas Water Development Board funds, the Tarrant District will fund the engineering, planning and environmental work for the integrated pipeline project. Acquisition of property for the transmission line and design work will be done concurrently, using other funding sources

Since its creation, the TRWD has developed a system of surface-water reservoirs and raw-water transmission facilities to provide water for an 11-county service area. It serves about 1.7 million customers. The new infrastructure will tie in with existing pipelines.

“We currently have a line that comes from Cedar Creek Lake, and another that comes from Richland Chambers, and they bring us water to Tarrant County,” Lorance said. “This pipeline will be extended on down to Palestine. I don’t know what the exact plans are, but Dallas will tie into it as well.”

Lorance said the goal is to have the project done by 2018.

“It’s still too early to tell when they’ll start turning dirt,” Lorance said.