Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Drainage Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City outlines permanent pump-station plan for PLA 7, vows portable pump will remain in place
Summary
City staff recommended a permanent pump station at PLA 7 with a force main discharging to South Sony/John Ward Lake, two submersible pumps for redundancy, channel excavation to increase drawdown, and an expected in-service date in winter 2027; staff said a portable pump bought after the 2023 floods remains staged for immediate use.
The Amarillo City Council received a detailed briefing on the PLA 7 pump-station project and a timeline for design and construction on its regular meeting agenda.
"Through all that process, recommendations that have come back are a pump station located on the south side of Greenways Park," city presenter Alan Harter told the council, describing the selected location and the alternatives the engineering consultant studied. The recommended design includes two submersible pumps for redundancy and a force main that would discharge to South Sony and ultimately to John Ward Lake.
Harter said the project follows a preliminary engineering report from HF Associates completed in 2024. The recommended work also calls for excavating a channel between a small pond south of Greenways Park and the main body of PLA 7 so the system can draw down more water during high-flow events. He said final design negotiations were under way and the city expects to complete final design in summer 2026, bid the work in fall 2026 and bring the new pump station into service in winter 2027.
In the near term, Harter said the city purchased a portable pump that is positioned at Greenways Park and is ready to operate immediately when needed. "We rented a pump after the 2023 flooding," he said. "The ability to have this pump out there right now—1 it's sitting there in place so that if we were to get a rain event that threatened to flood the area, we could turn that pump on and begin pumping today."
Council members pressed Harter on operational limits. Harter said the temporary pump moves about 3,000 gallons per minute and that continuous, multi-day heavy rain can limit the ability to pump without risking downstream gravity systems. He noted that today the temporary pump discharges to McDonald Lake and that PLA 7 is currently operationally dependent on capacity downstream at McDonald Lake.
On maintenance and long-term performance, Harter said the city has conducted bathymetric surveys and will include dredging and monitoring in the program of projects. He told the council the proposed channel would be located away from primary inflow points to limit accelerated silting.
Members of the public and a regional flood-planning official told the council the project affects residents both inside and outside city limits. Kimberly Hamlin, vice chair of the Region One Flood Planning Group, said residents she represents are often elderly and remain at risk; she also reiterated a neighborhood handout saying roughly 82% of the PLA 7 watershed is inside city limits.
Harter and other city staff said they would continue coordination with the Greenways PID and nearby property owners, keep the portable pump in place as an immediate response asset, and pursue the permanent pump-station construction according to the stated schedule.
Next steps: the city is negotiating a final professional services agreement for design, will complete design in 2026, and expects to advertise and award construction contracts in late 2026 with an anticipated service date in winter 2027.
