Council authorizes design for Copperas Branch Lake lift station ahead of proposed bond

Highland Village on May 13 authorized professional engineering services to design a new lift station at Copperas Branch Lake intended to replace an aging facility that city staff says is at risk of flooding and contributes to sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) incidents.

City staff told the council the existing lift station has, on occasion, come within inches of being flooded when lake levels are high; waves have reached the wet-well cover during high-water events. Staff said the current wet well cannot operate at full capacity as it approaches roughly 80 percent full, which can cause wastewater to daylight from two lakeshore manholes — a reportable SSO under Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) rules.

The new facility would be sited within a utility easement identified in the 2014 plat for the DoubleTree Ranch Park addition and be roughly 10 feet deeper than the existing wet well to provide additional storage and avoid overflows. Staff said increasing wet-well depth and adding mitigation measures will keep wastewater moving to the Upper Trinity Regional Water District reclamation plant rather than sitting and becoming septic in the collection system.

Staff estimated design and construction costs; council was told the city has earmarked a little more than $2.5 million for the lift-station project. Staff said the design could be completed by the end of summer and construction bid and underway as soon as late winter, and that construction funding would be proposed as part of a utility-and-street bond package to council in September.

Councilmembers asked about the project timeline, the Upper Trinity Regional Water District’s prior plans to repair the existing station, and how Double Oak’s flows are metered and charged. Staff said the regional authority had proposed an approximately $780,000 electrical and wet-well repair project, and the city halted that work once the council directed staff to pursue the new lift station design. Staff also said Double Oak pays a flowage charge (discussed in the meeting as $0.14 per thousand gallons) for flows that pass through Highland Village infrastructure.

The council approved Resolution 2025-3187, authorizing a task order with Schaumburg & Polk, Inc., for design services; the vote was unanimous.

Quotes "We would make this lift station about 10 foot deeper so the wastewater would drop into a wet well," city staff said, explaining the purpose of the new design. "When the lake got up to 537.3 mean sea level, the waves were lapping on the wet well cover." (city staff presentation)

Ending Staff will return with a project design schedule and cost estimate; construction funding will be considered in a proposed bond package later this year.