SUNNYVALE — With little fanfare, a local government entity is spending nearly $1 billion on what's considered one of the biggest construction projects in North Texas.
Millions of people are supporting it with their fees.
Even though not much is known about it, this project is important if you like clean water.
Spreading discreetly in Sunnyvale, over 250 acres, hundreds of workers are pouring tons of concrete.
The dozens of columns they form, mostly hidden from view, are for structures that will store the natural resource most vital for North Texas' survival and growth.
Dallas Water Utilities is expanding its East Side Treatment Plant from the biggest in the Southwest to one of the biggest in the nation.
"[It's] massive in all kinds of ways, because you are dealing with an existing facility that's gone through several rehabilitations and expansions in the past," said Jennifer Cottingham from Dallas Water Utilities.
East Side is one of three water treatment plants serving 2.4 million people in Dallas and 22 surrounding cities.
But in somewhat of a race against time, Dallas is adding on to meet the needs of three million customers by 2024.
"You would be rationing water or you would limit growth to the area," Cottingham said. "That's often what happens to communities that don't plan for the future."
The $800 million project involves building a pump station and a 28-mile pipeline from the Lake Fork Reservoir in Wood County to connect to a new 32-mile pipeline near Lake Tawakoni that will carry raw water from both lakes to East Side.
When finished, the plant's water-cleaning capacity will climb from 440 million gallons a day to 540 million.
This expansion includes building four above-ground storage reservoirs, each with the capacity of 10 million gallons.
However, the deadline of finishing by 2012 is draining away.
Adequate rainfall; fewer people using water because of the recession; and conservation efforts mean less revenue for Dallas Water Utilities.
Although owned by the city, DWU follows a pay-as-you-go budget.
Revenue from water bills so far this fiscal year is $36 million below forecast.
"If you bring in fewer revenues, then you can't build as many projects, so you have to kind of scale back a little bit," Cottingham said.
So DWU now thinks East Side will be done in 2015. Until then, it believes it can meet the demand for clean water.
Yet the agency is aware that if a growing area doesn't plan as time keeps flowing, the water will not.
E-mail: bwatson@wfaa.com
