La Marque council votes to bid SBR wastewater treatment plant to meet grant deadline

La Marque City Council voted Thursday to put a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) wastewater treatment plant out for bid after engineers told the council the alternative would better meet a fixed grant budget and the project closeout deadline. Councilman James Ross made the motion and the council approved it by voice vote.

Council members took the action after a presentation from engineering and grant-administration staff explaining that construction prices have risen since the city’s original 2021 GLO application and that the GLO construction line in the grant is effectively capped. Rick Garcia, a project engineer working on the plans, said the conventional design’s construction cost was estimated at about $40.4 million and that an SBR option could lower the footprint and cost to roughly $35.4 million.

The decision matters because the project’s federal disaster-recovery funds from the Texas General Land Office (GLO) are subject to an administrative closeout date tied to the GLO agreement. Alex Siegfried, the city’s project manager with the grant administrator, told the council the project was granted a two-year extension and that construction completion documents must be submitted about two months before the grant’s administrative closeout; he said that effectively creates a November 30, 2026 construction deadline for practical purposes. Siegfried also warned the council that the GLO will not provide additional construction funds beyond the grant’s construction cap.

Engineers described trade-offs between the conventional activated-sludge design and the SBR alternative. Brent (Adecco Engineering) and Rick Garcia explained that a conventional plant uses clarifiers and larger foundations and will take longer to build; in contrast an SBR treats wastewater in batches using holding/settling tanks, eliminates clarifiers, reduces the footprint by roughly 17–20 percent, and is more automated. “We will be ready by April, and we will bid it out in April if we choose just this round,” Garcia said about the SBR design’s schedule.

Council members and staff also discussed how the grant money had been allocated. The original GLO allocation cited in the meeting was $48,904,000; the presenters said roughly $3.5 million had already been expended on project work and that the grant’s construction budget line is about $40.4 million. Staff said that rising material and labor costs since 2020–21 forced designers to reduce scope and remove nonessential buildings and systems to try to remain within the grant’s limits.

Council discussion touched on enforcement and capacity concerns. A council member reminded the body that La Marque has had issues with sewage discharges to Highlands Bayou and that the city must expand capacity to meet Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) expectations. Engineers noted the TCEQ capacity/mandate that the city must provide a 2.25 million gallons per day (MGD) capacity position as part of compliance planning.

Councilman Ross made the motion to proceed with the SBR design and put that option out for bid, and another council member seconded the motion (the seconder’s name was not recorded in the transcript). The mayor called for a voice vote; the meeting record shows the motion carried on an affirmative voice vote (“Aye”). The motion directs staff and the city’s engineers to complete the SBR design and begin the bid process.

The council also discussed priorities for the project’s other workstreams that are part of the same GLO contract, notably rehabilitation of lift stations. Presenters said three major lift stations have been prioritized for repair and that any construction savings on the plant could be redirected to additional lift-station work if funds remain available and if such a reallocation complies with the GLO grant performance statement.

The council did not take additional formal actions at the special meeting on other elements of the grant; staff indicated they will return with final bid documents, detailed cost breakout and recommendations, and suggested prioritization for any residual construction funds.

The council’s action is procedural (authorizing staff to complete design work and begin the bid process) and does not yet award a construction contract. Next steps identified in the meeting include finishing the SBR design (presenters estimated the SBR was about 60–70% complete at the time of the meeting), publishing the bid, and pursuing construction schedules sized to meet the GLO administrative closeout timeline.