Page 277 - Fort Worth City Budget 2019

Enterprise Funds

Permitting of New Water Reclamation Facility: Wastewater originating from far west Fort Worth currently travels
more than twenty miles via existing wastewater collection pipes, through the downtown area, before treatment
at the Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility on the city's east side. As west Fort Worth continues to grow,
many of these existing pipes will become undersized to handle the proposed wastewater loading. The decision
was made to invest in the future Mary's Creek WRF in west Fort Worth that will divert the proposed wastewater
flows originating from west Fort Worth, treat the wastewater to a high standard and either discharge into Mary's
Creek or provide a reclaimed water source for developments interested in reuse. Land for the proposed WRF was
purchased in 2011 and in January 2017 the City Council approved a contract to initiate the permitting process,
which includes applying for a discharge permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The Utility
filed the permit application with the TCEQ in March 2018. TCEQ deemed the application administratively
complete in May 2018 and is currently conducting its technical review. The permitting process could take up to
three years. Future permitting tasks include public outreach and responding to questions from regulatory
agencies. Permit issuance will be followed by design and construction procurement. Under the current CIP,
construction could start as early as 2023.

MyH20 Program: The MyH20 program will provide retail customers with new tools and information to better
understand and manage their water use, promote efficiencies from treatment to tap and improve processes and
operations across the Utility. The program is being executed over a multi-year period in several phases. The Utility
is nearing completion of Phase I, consisting of the planning, system design and acquisition of network
infrastructure and is moving into Phase II in FY2019. Phase II consists of the initial deployment of all systems to
approximately 11,000 customer locations, along with staff training, and validation of performance results.
Education and outreach efforts will occur prior to deployment. Once validated, the Utility will move forward with
full city-wide deployment over several years in Phases III and IV. Fully implemented, MyH20 will enhance the
customer experience by providing valuable, personalized information about water use, improving the efficiency
and options for interacting with the Utility and providing additional billing and payment capabilities. In addition,
the program will improve revenue recovery, provide more frequent and granular data to address issues within the
Utility's distribution system, improve system modeling and enable targeted customer outreach.

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