City of Pharr

Public Utilities

WELCOME TO ALL AMERICA CITY OF PHARR PUBLIC UTILITIES

WASTEWATER PLANT
WATER PLANT
DISTRIBUTION & COLLECTION
BILLING DEPARTMENT

Water or Sewer Problems

(956) 787-7951 M-F 7:30 am to 5:00 pm
(956) 787-2761 after 5:00 p.m.
(956) 787-2761 Weekends and Holidays

Need location of Water or Sewer lines Call:
(956) 787-9772

Utilities Billing Questions
956) 702-5300

Public Utilities Department receives award from the Texas Water Utilities Association

Public Utilities Department receives the largest grant in Texas history

Public Utilities Department Annual Report 2008

With stricter regulations set forth by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and new regulations just around the corner,  the City of Pharr Public Utilities Department (PUD) has been able to design and plan its ongoing infrastructure needs to incorporate these requirements for the future needs of Pharr.  The PUD consists of Water Treatment Plant, Water Distribution System, Wastewater Treatment Plant and Wastewater Collection System.

The Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is a 10 Million Gallon per Day (MGD) plant. This past fiscal year the WTP treated and distribute over 2.52 billion gallons of water to over 17,350 water customers.  The WTP also received a SUPERIOR rating from TCEQ it state regulatory agency for the fourth year in a row.  The SUPERIOR rating is accomplished by meeting the rules and regulations set forth by TCEQ.  One of those rules is having enough capacity per water connection to meet the demands of the city, basically known as the WTP capacity. To stay in compliance with TCEQ the city had to expand it WTP, which included the Raw Water Station Project and overall expansion of WTP capacity.  The design and construction has commenced on the Raw Water Pump Station expansion. The expansion will increase the pumping capacity of the raw water pump station from 10 MGD to 15 MGD.  The expansion is approximately $1,000,000 project, which part of the funding for this project is from Texas Water Development Board EDAP grant funds of approximately $500,000, the PUD will match the grant to complete the project. The project should be complete in late April 2009.   The PUD will also be expanding the entire WTP from 10 MGD to 16 MGD at a cost of $14,000,000.  The design of WTP expansion is 30% complete and the entire project should be completed by late 2010 or early 2011.

The Water Distribution System is over 300 miles of water lines throughout the City consisting of 2” WL to 24” WL.  The PUD has taken on the challenge of replacing the 13 miles of 2” WL by doing the work “in house”.  The PUD has completed replacing over 5 miles of 2” WL and upgrading the water lines to 4” to 8” WL; plus adding fire protection to those areas.  By doing the work “in house” the PUD is saving over $500,000.  Along with “in house” projects, this pasted fiscal year the PUD received and completed approximately 1600 work orders. These work orders consisted of new water connections, meter replacements, water breaks, and water line replacements, sewer backups, manhole replacements, and repairs to sewer force main.

The Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is a 5 MGD plant.  This past fiscal year the WWTP treated and discharge over 1.65 billion gallons of effluent; also, the WWTP recycled over 700,000 gallons per day of effluent to irrigate the Tierra Del Sol Golf Course.  The WWTP, which is at capacity, will be expanding to an 8 MGD plant. The 3 MGD expansion will be a Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) plant, which is more compact then the current WWTP. The expansion will not take up as much area as the current WWTP and is design for most of the apparatus to handle 10 MGD when future expansion is needed. This is a tremendous cost saving for future expansion. One of the future TCEQ regulations is to eliminate discharge of phosphorus and nitrogen in the effluent.  The prevention of these pollutants is to protect   the Arroyo Colorado Watershed. The PUD will install an Agua Cloth Media Filter to limit these pollutants from discharging into the system.  The cost of the filter system is approximately $1,200,000. The WWTP design is 100% complete and the $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 project will be completed by late 2010.

The Wastewater Collection System (WWCS), which consists of over 260 miles of gravity sewer lines and force mains and approximately 42 lift stations, is undergoing a major overhaul. The City of Pharr received a $19,000,000 grant from North American Development Bank (NADBank) to revamp the WWCS. The project is to make sure the PUD stays in compliance with TCEQ regulations.  The project is to eliminate sanitary sewer overflow, unpleasant odor around the city, eliminate 10 lift stations and build three (3) larger state of art lift stations and reroute sewer through larger sewer gravity lines and force mains.  The WWCS project, which is approximately $44 million, is broken up into 4 phases. The first phase of the project has commenced and should be completed by late 2009.  The entire $44 million project should be completed by end of 2010.

With ongoing capital improvement projects to “in house” projects throughout the city, the Public Utilities Department continue to strive to meet the needs of the city.  From obtaining a SUPERIOR rating from TCEQ to completing over 1600 work orders this past year, the Public Utilities Department is committed to providing protection of public health, fire protection, support of the economy and quality life services to current and future residents of Pharr.