Water treatment plant nears critical deadline

The City of Olney awaits the state environmental agency’s go-ahead to start building the $13.5 million water treatment plant. Photo by Will Sadler The City missed a July 10 deadline for keeping the construction of Olney’s new water treatment plant on track as delays by state environmental regulators pushed back the start of the $13.5 million project yet again.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality demanded revisions to the plans by engineers Corlett Probst & Boyd in April, pushing back the planned summer groundbreaking of the plant by 60 days. The agency came back again with some minor tweaks - asking the engineers to revise an air gap and move a power line and to apply for an exception to existing water and wastewater lines that are crossing each other but will be abandoned when the new plant is operational, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon told the Council at its July 10 meeting.

The good news, Mrs. Pagsuberon said, was that the TCEQ did not reset the approval pro- cess for another 60 days.

The City then will send the final plans out for bids and select a construction company, he said. Mayor Rue Rogers told the Council in April that “if we could break ground sometime in 2023 we would be on schedule.”

Mayor Rogers advised Mrs. Pagsuberon to “stay close to Corlett Probst & Boyd.”

“I was hoping that today we had everything back approved and ready to go to that next step but we need to apply pressure,” he said. “Let’s not lose another week. We need to move on this project … we passed the water [surcharge] and the revenue bonds. We need to start showing some movement on it … let’s be as proactive as we can.”