Water Plant Operations 

Water Treatment

The City of Horseshoe Bay began providing water to Horseshoe Bay in 1973. The Utility Department operates two water treatment plants, Central and West. Under a purchasing contract with the Lower Colorado River Authority the City obtains untreated lake water from Lake LBJ. 

Plant operations personnel responsible for production of treated water participate in advanced training and state licensing to ensure that the water quality and plant operations remain at their best.  

As stated in the annual TECQ Consumer Confidence Water Quality Report (CCR), the two plants consistently produce water meeting or exceeding both state and federal standards.

LAKE LBJ

Water Treatment Plants

The Central Water Treatment Plant, completed in May 2006 is capable of producing 4.0 million gallons of water a day (MGD). The facility combines conventional coagulation and settling with a state-of-the-art filtration system. PALL Water Processing supplied the new filtration equipment described as "Microza Membrane Technology". The PALL filtration system was developed to provide a 5 Log (99.99%) reduction of cryptosporidium and giardia lamblia cysts with a 0.1-micron (0.0000039") membrane filter. Along with new treatment, equipment installed a the Central Water Treatment, a SCADA System, (Supervisory Central and Data Acquisition System) including fire and security systems have been installed to monitor and control the water production process.

The West Water Treatment Plant was upgraded June 2017 increasing production from 1 million to 2 million gallons a day, equipped with the same type of Micro-Filtration system like the Central Water Treatment Plant.

The City's central water storage system consists of two tanks on Pawnee with a combined 3.0 million gallons. Water is pumped to the City's 750,000 gallon elevated waters torage tower built in 2014, located in Summit Rock Subdivision. Centrals distribution system is capable of transferring water from Summit to the West Elevated Tower via an interconnect between the two distribution systems. The West Water Storage system consists of one elevated storage tank located near the West Fire Station on Broken Hills.

Water produced at the Water Treatment Plants is treated with:

  • a combination of Chlorine and Ammonia which are added as a disinfectant in accordance with state and federal regulations
  • acid and caustic for pH adjustments to achieve maximum total organic carbon (TOC) removal prior to disinfection which was designed to lower disinfection by-products to greater levels than mandated by state and federal regulatory agencies
  • Aluminum sulfate (alum) and polymer for coagulation

All chemicals added during treatment and distributions are certified (NSF 60) safe for potable water use.

Consumers

The Utility Department provides water to City customers in Bay Country, Escondido, Horseshoe Bay, Horseshoe Bay South, Horseshoe Bay West, Pecan Creek, Sienna Creek,The Trails of LBJ. The City also furnishes treated water to Oakridge, Deerhaven and Sandy Harbor Subdivisions under wholesale contracts and provides out of City services to The Hills and Quail Ridge Subdivisions.

Water Plant Projects

Due to the drought that occurred in 1999, the West Water Treatment Plant construction was expedited and was online in September 2001. This plant is a modular treatment facility with a capacity of 1 million gallons per day. The site was designed to accommodate another 1 million gallon treatment unit within the existing building. The total cost of the facility was $2.2 million. Construction to expand capacity to 2 million gallons per day was completed in 2018.

Tall, tan tubes inside of a water treatment warehouse

The Central Water Treatment Plant, completed in May 2006, combines conventional coagulation and settling with a state of the art filtration system. PALL Water Processing supplied the new filtration equipment describes as "Microza Membrane Technology". The PALL filtration system was developed to provide a 5 Log (99.999%) reduction of Cryptosporidium and Giardia lamblia cysts with a 0.1-micron (0.0000039 inch) membrane filter. Along with new treatment equipment installed at the Central Water Treatment, a SCADA System, (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System) including fire and security systems have been installed to monitor and control the water production process.