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FORT WORTH — Construction will begin in February on a long-planned pipeline that will ship recycled wastewater to golf courses and other users thanks to a $22 million grant from the federal stimulus program.
Fort Worth has been planning to build the system for several years but never had the funding. The line will run about nine miles, from the Village Creek Wastewater plant in east Fort Worth to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. It should be operational by the end of 2010.The water is basically sewage that has been treated so it’s safe for some uses, like irrigation or cooling air-conditioning systems. It’s far cheaper to treat water to that level than to drinkable standards.The water could be used for golf courses in Arlington and Euless, for cooling towers or to fracture natural gas wells at D/FW."Recycled water is pretty much going to be part of our water system," Water Director Frank Crumb said during a recent presentation to the City Council’s infrastructure committee. In a separate system, Hillwood Development has formed a company, Independence Water, to sell recycled water for landscaping and other uses around Alliance Airport. Plans call for Independence to buy treated wastewater from the Trinity River Authority’s treatment plant in southeast Denton County. Hillwood developed Alliance Airport and many of the Fort Worth neighborhoods in far north Tarrant County and southern Denton County. Negotiations continue, but the plans call for the recycled water to be piped to Alliance for landscaping, industrial use and natural gas drilling, Hillwood Senior Vice President Russell Laughlin told the City Council recently.Laughlin said it makes sense from a business perspective — it’s becoming more likely that drinking water will be rationed during a drought. Having a drought-proof source of water would prevent disruptions. "We’re interested in protecting our investments up here, and that means also being sensible users of water," Laughlin said. Water systems in North Texas have generally lagged behind those in other parts of the country when it comes to recycling water. San Antonio and El Paso have miles of "purple pipe" systems that move treated wastewater to big users.States like Florida and California are far ahead. Florida recycles 44 percent of its wastewater: 240 billion gallons a year. More than half of the recycled water goes to irrigation, including to 262,000 homes that have separate systems for drinking water and irrigation. In California, a few cities in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas are even experimenting with desalinating ocean water.The federal stimulus plan emphasizes water reuse projects, particularly in the West. The Interior Department set aside $135 million of its stimulus funding for recycled water projects, said Zachary Dorsey, a spokesman for the WateReuse Association, a trade group. Most of that money went to California. The Environmental Protection Agency included reuse projects in its $4 billion stimulus program aimed at water projects. And on Oct. 5, President Barack Obama signed an executive order telling federal agencies to use recycled water at their facilities. "That was very promising because it says at the highest levels of government that this is an important thing for preserving and protecting the environment," Dorsey said. Fort Worth’s system is projected to pump 429,000 gallons its first year, and the flow could increase to 1 million gallons a year within 10 years. If the projections hold, the system could break even by 2017, Crumb said.MIKE LEE, 817-390-7539
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