It’s the next step in a much-anticipated project.
During its April 18 board meeting, TRWD’s Board of Directors approved the purchase of 700 acres for the development of the Cedar Creek Wetland.
As more reuse water becomes available the land will be used to expand the wetland project to its planned footprint of 3,300 acres. The wetland will be located near the Cedar Creek Lake in East Texas.
Final designs for the wetland, pump stations and pipeline already are underway, with construction set to start in 2027.
When the wetland is completed in 2032 it is expected to produce an average of 156 million gallons a day. At full capacity, the wetland will produce enough water to serve an additional 1.1 million people.
“We’ve been talking about this for almost 30 years. It’s exciting to see it moving from paper to construction,” said Darrel Andrews, TRWD assistant environmental division director.
“This property purchase is happening so we can treat the most reuse water possible at this project,” he said.
TRWD is always looking for new sources of water. TRWD provides raw water to 2.3 million residents in more than 70 North Central Texas cities.
Last summer, the TRWD’s existing 2,200-acre Shannon Wetland project, located next door to the Richland Chambers Reservoir, produced enough water to fill Lake Worth not once, but twice.
Both wetlands reuse water from the Trinity River that is pumped through man-made sedimentation basins and treatment cells built to act like the marshy areas that naturally occur along many streams and rivers.
The Cedar Creek wetland presents a unique challenge, however, because it requires a pump station to push the treated water through a 10-mile long pipeline to the reservoir. It also requires a balancing reservoir, too.
Still, the wetland is considered to be financially prudent. Building a new reservoir would take much longer and cost more than $2 billion.
Additional land purchases are being considered to complete the wetland.
“We’re building this project for future water,” Andrews said. “It’s the culmination of years of effort and research. We’re thrilled to see this work be implemented.”
