1998-01-26 Workshop and Regular Meeting of City Council

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0 0 City of La Porte Interoffice Memorandum To: Mayor and City Council From: Jeff Litchfield, Assistant City Manager teve Gillett, Director of Public Works Date: January 20, 1998 Subject: Additional Water Capacity Purchase by the La Porte Area Water Authority Background The La Porte Area Water Authority (the "Authority") was created by an act of the Texas Legislature to ensure an adequate supply of surface water for the Bayshore area, in response to a mandate by the Hams -Galveston Coastal Subsidence District to convert to surface water. The Act gives the City Council of the City of La Porte the power to name the members of the Authority's board of directors, and final approval of contracts entered into by the Authority. The Authority, after approval by the voters in 1982, began developing a plan to provide surface water. After studying various alternatives, the Authority determined the most cost-effective solution to be purchase of capacity at the City of Houston's Southeast Water Purification Plant, then under design, and to construct transmission facilities to the Authority's customers. The Authority negotiated contracts with the cities of La Porte, Shoreacres and Morgan's Point, as well as the Bayshore Municipal Utility District, in November 1987. The contract with the City of Houston to purchase capacity was finalized in December 1987. Funding in the amount of $9.8 million was secured through the Texas Water Development Board to purchase the capacity and design and construct transmission facilities. The Authority began taking treated surface water from the Southeast Plant on March 20, 1991. The Authority purchased 4.2 million gallons per day (mgd) of treated surface water, which was split between the Authority's customers as follows: La Porte — 90.97% (including the former Bay MUD), Morgan's Point — 4.29%, and Shoreacres — 4.47%. Currently, the cities of Shoreacres and Morgan's Point are at or near their capacity, and the City of La Porte is at 88% of capacity. The original study prepared by Espey, Huston & Associates projected the City of La Porte would reach its capacity in 1999. However, projected populations did not increase at the rate projected in the study. The population was expected to increase by 2.74% per year from 1986 to 1990 and by 2.54% per year from 1990 to 1997 and the actual population increase was .77% per year for 1986 to 1990 and 2.35% for 1990 to 1997. At the current population increase of 2.35% per year, the capacity will be reached in the year 2003. Over the last several years, there has been discussion of the City of Houston expanding the Southeast Plant or even re -engineering to provide more thru-put. However, at this time, the City of Houston has no plans to proceed with either of these options.