NETRWPG hears consultants’ study details

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

August 25, 2005 - The North East Texas Regional Water Planning Group (NETRWPG) elected four new members, re-elected three members, and had one voting member switch positions with a non-voting member at the Aug. 17 meeting on in Mount Pleasant.

The election was held because of expiring voting member positions.

Newly-elected members include Adam Bradley of Marion County, Jim Nickerson of Camp County, John Bryan of Morris County, and Don Hightower of Wood County.

Bradley will replace his John Bradley (his father) and will represent the agricultural interests on the board. Nickerson will take Vernon Rowe’s position and will represent industries. Bryan replaces C.W. Forsyth and represents the public. Hightower replaces David Parsons and will represent counties.

Re-elected members were Larry Calvin of Delta County representing environmental interest, Dean Carrell of Rains County representing municipalities, and Ken Shaw of Harrison County representing industries. Both Carrell and Shaw have been on the board about a year and sought re-election.

Replacing Barry Boswell, who represented electric generating utilities, will be Greg Carter, who will represent the same category. Boswell works for Texas Utilities, whereas Carter works for Swepco and so the interest group maintains someone with working knowledge of that group. According to NETRWPG Administrator Walt Sears, at least one appointment for Electric Generating Utilities must be made to comply with the Texas Water Code.

The board is also scheduled to amend their by-laws in September, opening the door for a 24th member, who will be Troy Henry of Wood County. Henry will represent river authorities.

During the meeting, the board heard comments from the consulting group. James Beach from LBG-Guyton Associates updated the group on a supplemental study project regarding a potential water management strategy (wms). Beach stated the wms “has been suggested for the City of Kilgore consists of using effluent from its wastewater treatment plant for fluid injections in oil and gas reservoirs in lieu of potable water.”

A memo issued with the presentation stated Kilgore currently provides about 4.4 million gallons of potable water per year for oil, gas and geothermal reservoir injection. The treated effluent could likely be provided to the user at a lower cost, and reuse of the effluent would promote conservation of water in East Texas.

There are issues involved with this process and Beach elaborated on the regulatory and the customer issues.

“We have been in touch with the railroad (Railroad Commission of Texas) and TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) on what their stance is. It would take a Class I permit which is a one-year process and lengthy,” Beach said.

He added to “make a long story short, TCEQ is currently working to come up with an opinion memo to their stance. Hopefully we will have a letter by the end of the month.”

As far as customer issues, Beach stated there is a mix use of this water from Kilgore, such as rinsing frac-tanks and mixing cement batches.

Stan Hayes, another consultant, briefed the group on the study of high municipal per-capita use and regionalization of water supply.

Hayes stated they haven’t had much cooperation from water entities and “next week we are going to visit personally with those who haven’t turned in their information.” This information would be used to pinpoint how many gallons are being used per person per day per city.

The regionalization of water would link smaller water groups, forming a larger water group. Hayes stated so far they have linked 10 groups in the southern part of the region but “we’re not saying if they ever will (combine), we’re just simply doing an analysis to spark the wheel,” he added.

During the public comment time, David Nabors of Paris requested the board “check in with TCEQ to see if Region D should be a party at the public hearing regarding a proposed waste dump in Avery.” He also questioned the possibility of forming subcommittees to the representatives on the board.

The next NETRWPG meeting will be Sept. 21, 1 p.m. (new time), at the Extension building in Mount Pleasant.