Mineral Wells Area News

PALO PINTO, March 25, 2025 — The Palo Pinto Municipal Water District No. 1 plans for the install of a new valve system at its Hilltop Water Treatment Plant to remedy TCEQ infractions and restore full operational capacity, officials announced at their March 21 meeting.

“This is a substantial piece of equipment we bought, so we had to put a vault around it,” Howard Huffman told board members, describing the valve as “probably eight foot tall, four foot wide.”

The district will seek bids for construction of a concrete vault to house the new valve, with officials emphasizing opportunities for area businesses. The engineering has been completed by HDR, with precise specifications that contractors must follow.

“We don’t want to do any major projects at Hilltop that do not have an engineer stamp on it anymore,” Huffman emphasized.

“Anybody can pour this concrete vault. It’s a concrete box. It’s not complicated,” Huffman added, indicating several local contractors could potentially handle the project.

“So we do anticipate some locals possibly bidding,” board President David Turk asked, with Huffman confirming during discussions about the bidding process.

The new valve installation is a critical step toward addressing the remaining TCEQ violation. “We’re, pouring the vault. Because even if we, even when the city and the district puts a new plant in this line, this valve will still be there,” Huffman explained. “We shut the plant off, we can go back now and cut the meter in and put the meter in.”

The water meter issue has been an ongoing compliance concern. “The remaining TCEQ violation from 2022 that we don’t have addressed yet is a raw water meter coming into the plant,” stated to Huffman. Officials noted that while the facility has meters on individual basins, regulators will not accept these combined readings.

The district expects state regulators to restore the plant’s original capacity. “We’re expecting by the end of this month, a letter from TCEQ returning the plant capacity to 12 million a day, which will take some pressure off the city for these contracts,” Huffman said.

Officials also reported that the district continues to assist city finance staff with applications for forgivable loans from the Texas Water Development Board to help fund the completion of a new water treatment plant, drawing on the district’s experience with the multi-step process.

Discussion of the Turkey Peak Reservoir project was limited at the meeting, with Huffman and attorney Rhett Warren reporting they continue to work with lobbyists to resolve confusion regarding the conveyance of FM 4.

Following Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Huffman told reporters he expects the delay to take about nine months but expressed optimism about the outcome and praised Mike Olcott and Senator Phil King’s commitment to finding a solution.

The district has conserved substantial water this year through water blending and management strategies. “We have been able to keep the lake valve turned off 31 days due to rain and just due to blending helps,” Huffman reported. “The 31 days so far this calendar year that we have not had the lake open equates to 140 million gallons of water we haven’t released out the lake.”

The conservation success is “largely due to weather, but it’s also due to the fact that we’re blending, you know, 1.5 to 2 million a day, just religiously,” Huffman added. “So it all adds up, and it all helps.”

As the district looks toward summer, officials expressed concern about potential drought conditions. “This region is anticipated to receive less than average rainfall this spring, and technically that is the start of the drought,” Huffman said.

Board member Don Crawford noted the particular challenges facing Lake Palo Pinto during hot weather. “When it gets 105 degrees in July and August, Lake Palo Pinto is too wide open. And it gives it back to the sky,” Crawford said.