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Councilors have approved an emergency budget amendment after learning the city of Pearsall’s wastewater treatment plant is on the brink of overflowing following a series of equipment failures.
The $1.1 million budget amendment was approved during a meeting on Tuesday, December 19.
According to Public Works Director Hector Gandara, the city-run facility has been hobbling along for some months, causing two back-ups along Gilliam Road. Gandara noted, however, that the condemning factor is bad lab results.
“Neither one [backups] were related,” Gandara said. “The backups were electrical. What caused the electrical was too much pressure, which caused wires to fry in the panel. The volume itself is the problem. We are at a point of no return. I cannot stress it enough; we are in danger.”
According to City Administrator Federico Reyes, a retrofit of the 50-foot clarifier was undertaken in 2017 using funds from a 2016 bond sale.
“The city is currently using just that one,” Reyes said. “We plan on retrofitting the eighty-foot clarifier, which is our main one.”
Gandara said that according to the company hired to repair the plant, RAM II, the clarifier would be retrofitted and equipment inside the treatment plant would be replaced. Laboratory results for the concrete, he said, indicate there is no need to replace the structure.
“It is an emergency repair,” the city manager said. “We do need to move on it. I know it is a lot of money and it is coming from our fund balance.”
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