City staff told the council that microfiltration and reverse osmosis (RO) are being evaluated for a planned new Hilltop water treatment plant and that the city must secure a final landowner easement before bidding on an RO facility. "Do we need to think about RO if we have a problem? How would we integrate it into this new design?" staff member Howard Huffman asked during his presentation. "Let's do our due diligence to make sure we make the right decisions."

The presentation said the new plant would likely include high-rate sludge-blanket clarifiers replacing the existing clarifiers, and that staff are not yet making a final equipment decision. Huffman outlined planned site visits for staff and consultants so operators can compare systems in person: Aug. 26 to Conroe (a plant using granulated activated carbon), Sept. 9 to Abilene (where RO features are integrated), and Sept. 16 to Cisco (solid contact clarifiers) and nearby Albany.

Huffman identified members of the consultant team and staff involved in the study, including Corey Shockley and Ashley Giesem — described in the presentation as a professional engineer with HDR’s Des Moines, Iowa office — and two Ph.D.-level consultants, Samuel Robfure and Sophie de Respiano. He said staff are completing a tracer study for Hilltop and are still working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) about plant capacity.

On siting the RO facility, Huffman said the city has pending easements: "We had our final landowner who hired a lawyer," he said. He described a meeting in which the landowner suggested non-monetary improvements to their property (brush clearing and other site work) as part of a lease/easement package. "That is the last landowner we need to get an easement from. We have the county and the two other landowners. Those easements are already done and paid for," Huffman said. He said that once that easement is agreed, the project will be ready to go out to bid quickly and that the city has cash on hand to start the work on pipelines and initial infrastructure for blending pumps. "That will put the pipelines in and probably stretch over and get some infrastructure for the bigger blending pumps in place. And that cash is in the bank," he said.

Huffman cautioned that a new treatment plant remains several years away, noting regulatory and design steps remain: "a new treatment plant is still several years out. We're still trying to make a point with TCEQ about the capacity of our plant and some tracer studies need to be done." He also flagged operational trade-offs: "Downside to this, it takes an extra lot of electricity to run from this RO and then these membranes even in microfiltration."

Council members asked procedural questions about debt issuance and project management. Huffman said the city will address formal project- and debt-management roles following the Water Development Board decision the staff expects in October and noted the council’s budget adds an assistant public works director position who would help manage capital projects.

No formal council vote on the Hilltop project occurred during the meeting; staff said they will return with a recommendation after the planned visits, tracer study results and successful negotiation of the outstanding easement. "We've seen these suggested technologies. We've asked the questions. So decisions can be made. And this will be your decision to make," Huffman said.