LAKE CONROE – With its deadline a little more than three years away, major sections of the Groundwater Reduction Plan project have started.
Those projects include the raw water intake, the surface water treatment plant and two storage tanks, said Mark Smith, GRP administrator for the San Jacinto River Authority.
Meanwhile, the first contracts for installation of the project’s 50 miles of pipeline will be awarded in March, he said.
Construction of the raw water intake is the most noticeable of the work going on along the Lake Conroe dam. Rebar reinforced concrete is being poured some 300 feet out from the dam’s shore for piers designed to support the pump station.
Three pumps will be installed, but there will be room to grow,” Smith said.
The raw water will be pumped out of the dam and into the treatment plant.
“Most of the work there right now is simply site work,” he said.
Once the foundation is completed, work on the treatment plant will include “multiple steps,” such as the pre-treatment and filtration of the water.
Designed to meet a mandated 30 percent reduction in the use of groundwater by the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District (LSGCD), the GRP project has a completion date of Jan. 1, 2016.