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Temple council told contract with Entera would start aquifer storage and recovery permitting; city projects thousands of acre-feet of added capacity
Summary
City staff described a planned professional services contract with Entera to begin permitting and design work for an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project that presenters said could add roughly 12,000 acre-feet of additional storage rights; staff framed the ASR effort as a lower-cost option to add long-term water capacity.
City staff described a proposed professional services agreement with Entera to initiate permitting and design work for an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project beneath the Synergy Park area.
The mayor and city staff said recent legislative changes cleared the way for a permanent ASR application and that Entera would be engaged to begin the state and federal permitting and design process under a professional-services agreement. Presenters said the ASR system would allow the city to inject treated water into a deep aquifer during times when water is available and later recover the water, enabling evaporation-free storage and drought resiliency.
Presenters said the ASR project could yield approximately 12,000 acre-feet of additional water rights for the city; in the presentation staff described that quantity both as "about 60% of what we use on an annual basis right now" and as "a 30% addition to our overall water rights," language used in the workshop remarks to describe different perspectives on the magnitude of added capacity. Staff said the new approach builds on recent legislative work the city supported and that permitting and well-field development costs would be far lower than purchasing equivalent surface storage.
The mayor framed the Entera contract and subsequent ASR permitting as part of a long legacy of the city investing in water resources and said the ASR could be a major step toward added long-term water capacity. Staff said the professional-services agreement would begin design and permitting tasks and that subsequent phases would include well-field development and injection/pumping infrastructure; staff noted pipeline and well costs remain significant and would be considered in later phases.
Ending
If council approves the contract, staff said it will begin permitting and design work and return with more detailed cost estimates and a development schedule for injection infrastructure and well fields.
