Wayne Ahrens on Building a Regional Water Supply
Providing surface water to West Harris County depends on regional partnerships and a massive network of infrastructure. Wayne Ahrens, Former Program Manager, explains how water travels from the Trinity River to Lake Houston and ultimately to communities across the region.
Transcript
Transcript edited for clarity and readability.
We negotiated a water supply contract with the City of Houston, but they only had a certain amount of water available.
The regional water authorities—North Harris County Regional Water Authority, West Harris County Regional Water Authority, North Fort Bend Water Authority, and Central Harris County Regional Water Authority—needed to move forward with the Luce Bayou Project, which included the Capers Ridge Intake and Pump Station.
I was lucky enough to be the project manager for the design on that.
It’s built on the Trinity River. It will pump 500 million gallons of water a day through about three miles of dual 96-inch pipelines, then into 23 miles of canal that ultimately flows into Lake Houston.
That becomes the water supply for the Northeast Water Purification Plant. The City is now expanding that plant, and West Harris County’s share is a little over 25 percent.
From there, we’ve got the Surface Water Supply Project, with 96-inch and 84-inch pipelines bringing water all the way out to Fry Road, and then on to provide water to the North Fort Bend Water Authority.
Watch more from The People Behind the Progress Video Series:
https://www.whcrwa.com/people-behind-the-progress/
