Town representative outlines Upper Trinity water district budget, Lake Ralph Hall schedule

Mark Pace, Copper Canyon's representative on the Upper Trinity (Opportunity) Regional Water District board, presented the district's annual report to the council and summarized key financial and operational figures.

"The total cost for Lake Ralph Hall when finished would be 984,000,000," Pace said, and he told the council the lake is expected to come online in the third quarter of 2026. He said Opportunity projects about $114.7 million in revenues for fiscal 2025 and budgeted capital expenditures of roughly $488.1 million, driven primarily by treatment-plant expansions and reservoir construction.

Pace described the district's scale and recent service volumes, saying Opportunity delivered about 16.3 billion gallons of water and treated about 5.4 billion gallons of wastewater during FY2024. He also addressed public concern over PFAS chemicals: "all tests have shown results that are below the new EPA contaminant levels, and in many cases, showed no PFAS at all in the water supply that you're getting," Pace said.

The report noted the district manages more than 110 miles of treated-water transmission pipelines and that the town pays a modest annual membership fee based on per-capita population. Pace closed by offering to answer council questions and by thanking the council for the appointment that put him on the district board.