Friday, May 17, 2024
The three-year delay caused by opposition to the city of Granbury’s second wastewater treatment plant will cost taxpayers almost $17 million because of legal fees and dramatically increased construction costs.
In 2019, when the city had expected to begin construction, the projected cost was $9 million.
Now, it’s $25 million.
When added to the legal fees the city accrued defending the plant’s location at 3121 Old Granbury Road, the cost attributable to the delay is close to $17 million.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued the city its permit on Monday, three weeks after it was unanimously approved by TCEQ commissioners at their monthly meeting.
Three days earlier, the Hood County News had obtained through open records documents detailing legal fees associated with the contested case hearing that occurred earlier this year at the State Office of Administrative Hearings at the request of the TCEQ.
The checks and invoices, which included reports and expert testimony, totaled almost $730,000, but likely did not include the final bill.
At that time, the documents showed that the most recent payment to JT Hill & Co. was made on Sept. 22. It was in the amount of $45,275.40.
However, the city had legal representation at the Oct. 5 TCEQ meeting when both sides made final arguments to commissioners. Two administrative law judges with SOAH had recommended that TCEQ issue the permit, but commissioners were not required to follow that recommendation.
When the city filed paperwork for the permit in 2019, it was embarking on improvements to the existing WWTP on Water’s Edge Drive. City officials made agreements with contractors that involved both WWTP facilities, making them a package deal that would save the city money.
Those agreements are no longer in place.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Its effects are still being felt through shipping delays and higher costs for materials and labor.
Pete Bailey with Pepper Lawson Waterworks, LLC told the City Council during a discussion of the wastewater treatment plants in April that construction costs had spiked by 40%.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
City Manager Chris Coffman has said that about $250 million in economic development has been affected by development moratoriums that were put in place by the City Council due to the delay in building the East plant and the fact that the South plant is at capacity.
Coffman has not responded to questions from the HCN about when the moratoriums might be lifted and when ground might be broken on the East plant. According to Assistant City Manager Rick Crownover, the facility will take 18-24 months to build.
No public discussion has taken place on how it will be funded.
The reason for the city manager’s silence might be because the chapter regarding the East WWTP has not officially been closed where the TCEQ, or a possible lawsuit in federal court, is concerned.
Opponents have a window of time during which they can appeal the TCEQ’s decision.
Granbury’s permit was signed on Oct. 24 and a Motion for Rehearing, which according to the TCEQ is a prerequisite to appeal, can be filed within 25 days of that date.
