Texas Water Development WUTAP Grant Update

DWSC Update – October 2024

On September 20, 2024, DWSC welcomed four engineers from Ardurra Engineering in Austin, TX, to visit our facilities. This partnership, fully funded by a Texas Water Development Board grant applied for by Board President Sara Edwards prior to her election, aims to assist struggling water systems in identifying both immediate and long-term needs, as well as providing guidance on securing additional funding to address these challenges.

Following a four-hour Zoom call last month, Ardurra's next step was an in-person walkthrough of our system and a meeting with the Board. During their visit, they identified several critical issues, and together we ranked multiple projects based on urgency.

Challenges Identified:

1. Well Capacity Issues:
   DWSC has long struggled with insufficient water capacity, both in terms of state requirements and the needs of our community. Years of underinvestment in our wells have led to significant degradation, and future rehabilitation will be costly due to their current condition. However, the need for reliable water production is immediate. Our current wells are producing far less than peak flow, and a lack of well rehabilitation has led to numerous well component failures in recent years costing DWSC in excess of $80,000.  As a result, the Board is working closely with multiple well experts to develop a rehabilitation plan to extend the life and increase production from our existing wells, addressing them one at a time. Concurrent with this, the board is pursuing multiple grants as well as funding methods to drill a new well. This is a high expense item that requires multiple work groups and state approval. Drilling a new well is a solution for the future, while current well redevelopment is a solution for the present. 

*On October 10, 2024 DWSC was able to put Well 1 back online after being off for over a year. This is a huge accomplishment and we are grateful to Southern Well for sharing insight on how to make this possible and Triple G Water for putting the plan into action. 

1. Line Infrastructure Deficiencies:
   Another critical concern is the lack of accurate information about our water lines, particularly their size and location. Proper line size and placement is essential for maintaining adequate pressure and water capacity for each household. Unfortunately, due to outdated records and the fact that many lines were installed without proper engineering oversight, we now face high-risk areas where lines are undersized or improperly located. Many lines run through wooded or vacant areas, which complicates maintenance, and leads to undetected leaks that can go on for weeks or even months. When these leaks are discovered, the costs to repair them are significantly higher due to the difficult locations and time involved. The frequent and costly repairs of these lines create financial burdens that cannot be easily planned for or budgeted. Current DWSC board members have been working towards an affordable mapping option that will allow us to not only trim that cost from the engineering study, but also allow us to commission a hydraulic study much faster. This study, a requirement for grant funding, will also help to prioritize line replacement. 
2. Water Loss:
   Stemming from both the well and line infrastructure issues, DWSC is currently experiencing a staggering 50% water loss. This means that half of the water we pump from the wells—incurring electricity costs to pump, costs for chlorine to treat, and the expense of distributing through the system—is lost. While some of this loss is due to routine line flushing, much of it is not. This results in over 1 million gallons of water being lost each month. The aging line infrastructure is likely a significant contributor to this water loss.

Additionally, our water loss data is not entirely accurate because our outdated individual meters may not be recording usage correctly. Water meters have a typical lifespan of 10-12 years, after which they begin to slow down and under report usage. Unfortunately, DWSC has not maintained accurate records of when meters were installed, nor was a replacement schedule ever fully implemented. Replacing meters, meter boxes, and related parts will be an expensive task for DWSC, one that should have been spread out over time and accounted for in the annual budget. Instead, the current Board is now facing the challenge of addressing this in large sums. Water loss through metered connections directly affects the income DWSC has for operations, maintenance, and repairs. Replacing these under-reporting meters is a top priority, and likely the quickest way to increase income, simply by metering the correct monthly water usage to bill. On top of individual meters being out of date, so were the meters on our wells. This has led to incomplete or inaccurate data to provide for water conservation and water loss grants, a much needed revenue stream we don’t have access to as a result. Ardurra is lobbying the Texas Water Development Board for exceptions but it cannot be guaranteed. 

Financial Challenges and Immediate Needs:

We are working tirelessly to address these issues through grants and loans, but even that process comes with its own challenges. Many funding programs require yearly financial audits to ensure the recipient's ability to manage  funds granted, and to pay back any loans borrowed. Unfortunately, due to DWSC’s past financial history, there are no recent audits available for immediate submission. As a result, DWSC must spend thousands of dollars to bring our system back into compliance with financial requirements before we can access many of these funding opportunities. DWSC does not currently have the funding available to drill a new well, replace aging meters, and repair our aging distribution system. To secure the improvements needed and ensure the future of DWSC, alternate funding is a necessity. 

While we are actively working with multiple entities to secure financial assistance, there are some immediate needs that cannot be delayed, nor can they be covered through grants or loans. These necessary upgrades and assessments are being thoroughly researched by the Board to ensure that we can move forward in a fiscally responsible manner. While we are doing everything we can in-house to save money, certain repairs and evaluations simply cannot be postponed.

We want to assure you that we are taking these issues seriously and are actively working on solutions, both to increase revenue via the updated meters, reduce costs by improving the infrastructure as rapidly as the budget will allow, and enable future grants by addressing the financial reporting and system evaluation requirements. With the partnership of Ardurra Engineering, we are moving forward to try and secure the necessary external funds and make the critical improvements that our water system desperately needs. We appreciate your patience and continued support as we tackle these challenges head-on.

Sincerely,
DWSC Board of Directors