The City of Lubbock will create master plans for wastewater and for the Lake Alan Henry watershed.
“Lake Alan Henry is a very important strategic water supply for the City of Lubbock,” the city said in recent public records.
“Approximately 20% of the City’s water supply comes from the Lake currently. In the future, up to 40% of the City’s water supply may come from the Lake,” the city said.
“Currently with the Lake Alan Henry infrastructure, we can only take about 20 percent of our needs,” said Lubbock’s Director of Water Utilities, Aubrey Spear. “The lake has a two-year safe yield –16,000 acre-feet [5,213,620,000 gallons]. Currently we’re only able to use about half that.”
Why only half?
“We’re not set up with the infrastructure,” Spear said. “We would have to add pumping capacity and treatment capacity. The pipeline is there.”
“We want to protect that lake,” Spear said. “You could also call it a watershed protection plan.”
“We’re looking at potential threats and how we can mitigate that threat so that it continues to be one of our major water supplies.”
And at some point, the city very well might want to double the potential water flow from LAH. Other water sources are well fields in Bailey County, and the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority.
“If we have one supply that falters then we have other sources,” Spear said.
The watershed plan will cost an estimated $100,000. Meanwhile, the wastewater plan, plus the studies that go into it, might cost up to $500,000.
The city completed a wastewater master plan in 2008.
“It was that plan that pointed us in the direction of looking at the Northwest Waste Water Reclamation Project that’s under construction,” Spear said.
Consultants wishing to work on the wastewater master plan had a deadline of Tuesday to submit an application. Those wishing to work on the watershed plan had a deadline of January 17, 2017.
