Background

The City of La Feria is responsible for providing water and wastewater services to its residents and eight colonias located to the north and west of the city. Six of the colonias already have access to water services, but none of them are connected to a centralized wastewater system.

The City obtains its water from the La Feria Irrigation District, which gets its water from the Rio Grande. Although the City has installed a 1.5 million-gallon-per-day (MGD) water well as a drought contingency measure, current water usage projections indicate the need for additional water rights in the near future to meet increasing demand.

The City’s wastewater plant is currently operating in compliance with state regulations and discharges treated effluent into the Arroyo Colorado, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. However, the plant has reached its capacity limits, and the wastewater collection system tends to overflow in times of heavy rains. Inadequate on-site wastewater disposal
systems in the colonias are also contaminating local groundwater, making well water unsuitable for drinking.

Description

La Feria is proposing a two-phase water and wastewater project to
improve service quality and to meet increasing demand through 2024.

Phase I

• Expansion of the water treatment plant from 2.0 to 3.45 (mgd).
• Installation of 25,680 ft of water transmission lines and 11,530 ft of
  distribution lines, including residential water hookups in two
  colonias.
• Construction of a new 1.25 mgd wastewater treatment plant and
  decommissioning of the existing plant.
• Installation of 25,500 ft of wastewater collection lines, 17,700 ft of
  force mains, and residential hookups to extend sewer services to the
  eight colonias.
• Purchase of additional 500 acre-feet of water rights.

Phase II (2009)

• Construction of a new 1.0 mgd water treatment plant.