AUSTIN, TX — The City of Jarrell has selected planning, engineering, and program management firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN) to prepare an alternatives engineering report for a new wastewater treatment plant.

Spurred by Apple, Oracle, Tesla, and other tech companies moving to Austin and a thriving housing market, the City of Jarrell, which is located just 40 miles from Austin, has experienced significant population growth over the last few years. In addition, average wastewater flows at the city’s existing wastewater treatment plant is nearing an important capacity benchmark established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

To meet future growth and TCEQ mandates, the city is planning to build a new 26 million gallons a day wastewater treatment plant on a greenfield site. To this end, the city has tasked LAN to evaluate and recommend alternative technologies that will reduce the plant’s operations cost over the long term without increasing the capital costs to build the plant (An alternatives engineering report is the step before the preliminary engineering report. It is the equivalent of a 10 percent design).

“The city’s leaders are continuing to be good stewards for their community,” said Mario Chapa, LAN’s Regional Water/Wastewater Practice Lead. “The fact that the city is growing rapidly is wonderful. Given the growth, the city wants to expand its wastewater infrastructure in an efficient, cost-effective manner. The first step in that process is the alternatives engineering report.”

The alternatives engineering report is scheduled to be completed in September.