Bellaire council hears HDR estimates: new plant could cost $105–130M; hookup to Houston far cheaper

Bellaire city officials and consultants on April 21 presented refined cost and timeline estimates for replacing, rebuilding or decommissioning the city's wastewater treatment plant, concluding the least-expensive technical option is to pipe flows to the City of Houston and discontinue Bellaire's plant.

The council heard HDR Engineering's updated work order and cost refinements from HDR engineer Chris Malinowski and a summary from Bellaire Assistant City Manager and City Engineer Beth Jones. Malinowski told the council "the least expensive option is to connect to the city of Houston and decommission the existing site." Jones said, "Honestly, my recommendation would be option 2 over option 1," referring to building a new plant on the Public Works site rather than rebuilding in the existing footprint.

Why it matters: Bellaire's plant is decades old, has subsided in places and is surrounded by homes, which creates regulatory and construction complexities. The council must weigh capital cost, long-term debt service and stormwater-detention tradeoffs as it considers whether to preserve municipal control of treatment or outsource treatment to Houston.

HDR presented three options and HDR's refined Level 5 cost estimates: rehabilitate and partly replace the existing plant on its current site (option 1) at about $105 million; build a new plant on the adjacent Public Works site (option 2) at about $130 million; or decommission the plant, build a force main and connect to Houston (option 3), about $4.8 million in construction plus one-time impact fees that HDR and staff estimated together at roughly $11.5 million before a potential $5 million credit from a land swap. The council was told…