San Marcos, Texas, nestled between Austin and San Antonio, offers many resources
to the community: natural springs that feed the San Marcos River; a popular state
university; a strong, well managed local economy; and a high quality wastewater
effluent. The City recently approached and resolved how they would apply a
monetary value to the wastewater effluent, including a commodity charge. The
newly expanded San Marcos 9.0 million gallons per day (MGD) Advanced Tertiary
Wastewater Treatment Plant is a state-of-the-art facility that produces some of
the highest quality effluent in the state of Texas. Since coming on line last
year, the quality of the effluent has consistently been better than permit limits
require. The high level of treatment and a voluntary upgrade to UV disinfection
were part of the City's commitment to preserving the water quality of the San
Marcos River. One of the indirect dividends to the community for their investment
in the treatment facility has been the availability of 3.6 MGD, at a minimum, of
high quality effluent at a location convenient to the areas of growth. In this
region of the state, where use of groundwater is discouraged and surface water is
becoming less available and more costly, the effluent is becoming a marketable
commodity. Applications of reuse from turf irrigation to augmenting the potable
water supply have been considered by the City. An industrial reuse application
has been the first to materialize. The City will provide the majority of their
currently available effluent to American National Power, an international power
co-generation company that is building the Hays Energy Project, a 1100 megawatt
(MW) combined cycle gas burning plant south of the City. An initial step in the
City committing to this project was setting the rates for the reuse water and for
receiving the wastewater from the co-generation plant. This paper documents San
Marcos' basis for setting the rates and the market value of the effluent. Includes 7 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 82 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 11 |
| Published : | 01/01/2000 |
