During hurricanes and flood events, La Marque's wastewater collection and treatment system experiences infiltration and inflow (I/I) and power outages. Wastewater Treatment Plant & Lift Station Resiliency Plan addresses those concerns, and more.
Mayor Keith Bell and City Manager Tink Jackson attended an award ceremony this morning where Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced the City of La Marque was awarded a $48,904,004 grant for our Wastewater Treatment Plant & Lift Station Resiliency Plan.
The grant funds will be used to overhaul the City of La Marque's wastewater system, which will fix our existing issues and allow for continued expansion and growth as our population continues to soar.
"The nearly $50 million of funding awarded by Commissioner George P. Bush and the Texas General Land Office is truly going to change the future of La Marque," said Mayor Keith Bell. "La Marque is a coastal city. We are resilient, but hurricanes and major storms can overwhelm our aging drainage and wastewater infrastructure, resulting in flooding, danger to the public, and destruction or loss of property. The repairs needed in our infrastructure are necessary, and this grant allows us to complete crucial, big-ticket projects while simultaneously working on additional improvements across our community."
Since City Manager Tink Jackson started at the City of La Marque on May 6, 2019, he's secured nearly $60 million in grant funding for the City of La Marque.
- $48,904,004 Wastewater Treatment Plant & Lift Station Resiliency Plan from GLO
- $ 7.5 million manhole cover and sewer infrastructure from GLO
- $2 million pending from Texas Department of Transportation for sidewalks along Bayou Road and Main Street
- $ 1.5 million Flood and drainage mitigation in the Mary/Melody residential area from GLO
- $500,000 for Mahan Park Boat Launch improvements from Texas Parks and Wildlife
Wastewater Treatment Plant & Lift Station Resiliency Plan:
During hurricanes and resulting flood events, the City of La Marque's wastewater collection and treatment system experiences severe infiltration and inflow (I/I) and power outages. In these events, the City's lift stations cannot pump the additional I/I, causing wastewater to backup into homes, overflow into ditches, and increase human health and safety risks.
The City of La Marque Harvey HUD MID project will accomplish the following:
- Convert the City's 21 lift stations to self-priming pumps, which will be elevated to eliminate the impact of floodwaters.
- Increase the capacity of the lift stations to keep up with I/I and eliminate the backing up of wastewater into residences and eliminate the overflow into City ditches.
- Add an emergency backup pump at each lift station to operate during times of power outages to eliminate back-ups and overflows.
- Elevate and enclose the existing WWTP walls to raise them above the 100-year flood plain elevation to reduce the potential for inundation during hurricanes/flood events.
- Increase the WWTP capacity by 2.25 million gallons per day to handle the flows from the lift stations during flooding events and to prevent backups and overflows.
- Elevate the new WWTP above the 100-year flood plain to reduce the potential for inundation during hurricanes/flood events.
In addition, the City's only wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is overwhelmed to the point it causes unauthorized discharges into Galveston Bay, thereby posing a threat to the environment and to any of the public who may have had contact with the untreated wastewater. The project will significantly improve the City's lift stations and WWTP, thereby mitigating flood risk to the entire wastewater collection system.
Stay tuned for more news and updates, La Marque. Forward Together!