Directors Tour District’s Facilities

Each year at this time Harris County WCID 114’s (the District) directors tour the District’s fresh water and waste water facilities with the District’s engineer and operator. These facilities consist of 3 water plants (where the District’s water wells and ground storage tanks [GST] are located), which pump and store fresh water, and 5 gravity-fed lift stations, which collect and transport waste water to the Kleinwood Joint Powers Wastewater Treatment Plant located near Meyer Park (the District is one of the Plant’s six owners). Additionally, Water Plant No. 1 is where the District connects to the North Harris County Regional Water Authority’s (NHCRWA) system for the receipt and distribution of surface water, a process mandated by law in order to help reduce subsidence.

The purpose of the tour, which generally lasts three hours, is to view those capital improvements recommended by the engineer and operator, as well as to ask them to take corrective action for items noted during the tour. This year the directors asked that dead trees be removed, encroaching vegetation be trimmed back, accumulated debris be hauled away, cedar fences be replaced, and agreed that the replacement of the master control center at Water Plant No. 3 be accelerated from 2024 to 2023. It was particularly timely that the directors were able to enter the 285,000-gallon GST located at Water Plant No. 1 when it was empty and view the repairs being made to replace faulty sealant and panels, the culmination of two years of negotiations with the GST’s manufacturer (the accompanying photos show this work being done and the directors inside the GST– from left to right Steve Feldman, Renee Alfaro, James Sibley and Doug Malloy, director Robert Robertson is not pictured).