Falls City approves bid for water system upgrades

FALLS CITY – The Falls City City Council approved a contractor bid from Excel Construction Services, LLC, for the work on upgrades to the city’s water system during the Oct. 10 regular meeting.

Excel Construction Services is a company based out of Leander that will install a second water-well pump that will bring the city up to compliance with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) standards.

Currently, the city has only one functioning well. By TCEQ standards, there must be two wells, as one is used as a backup. City officials say that the city has had only one working well for the past ten months. If that well were to go out, there would be no water for the city.

The city has a second well, but a new pump in the ground is needed for it. Once the new pump is installed, the city plans to also re-work the cooling towers. The cooling towers are what cools the water as it comes up from the ground at a heated temperature of 260 degrees.

“For years our water was free-flowing; we didn’t have pumps in the ground,” explained Mayor Brent Houdmann. “A year ago the water stopped free-flowing, so we were in a mess about how we were going to handle that. We had to start putting pumps in the ground. Pumps are very expensive, and we got the grant that’s going to be able to help us, not only to be able to put the pump in the ground, but also update our whole water system, our whole water plant.”

The city has obtained a Disaster Relief Fund grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture to fund the project. The project will cost about $273,000, according to city officials.

Read more: mySouTex.com - Falls City approves bid for water system upgrades


mySouTex.com - Falls City approves bid for water system upgrades