Public can comment on Abilene reverse osmosis discharge into Possum Kingdom
May 14—GRAFORD — The public is invited to comment on an Abilene permit application affecting Possum Kingdom Lake on June 18.
Hosted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the dual informal Q&A/formal comment session is at 7 p.m. in the Possum Kingdom Lake Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber is at 362 N. Farm-to-Market 2353 in Graford.
Abilene Director of Water Utilities Rodney Taylor said the city plans to activate a reverse osmosis unit that was being completed in Breckenridge, but never activated, as the last drought came to an end in 2016.
Taylor said the city now plans to put its Possum Kingdom Raw Water Roughing Facility, its formal name, into service.
The city straddling Taylor and Jones counties has long used Possum Kingdom water to supplement nearby Hubbard Creek Lake during drought.
Under a purchase agreement with the Brazos River Authority, the city of 127,385 (not including its metro statistical area) may take up to a little over 6.3 trillion gallons of water a year from the lake.
That water is salty, hence the plant in Breckenridge. The residue water that does not go on to the city's water treatment plant then goes back into the lake.
The permit allows a little more than 1.5 million gallons a day in the return flow to the lake.
And while the permit application uses the phrase, "water treatment waste," it's just very salty water returning to already salty water.
"The permitted 'wastewater' discharge is only the concentrated salty solution produced by the reverse osmosis process," Taylor said. "The (osmosis plant) is designed to remove the salts from a portion of the pumped raw water flow, and then reblend it with the remaining stream to result in a blended water quality that is comparable to the water quality of Hubbard Creek Lake."
The June 18 meeting will begin with informal discussion in which residents can ask state regulators about the permit.
It then moves to a formal portion during which people can have their comment added to the official record.
Comments also can be submitted by mail to Office of the Chief Clerk, TCEQ, Mail Code MC-105, P.O.Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087.
Comments also are taken at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/comment.
