Res 2016-137/approving a Water Master Plan to guide the future maintenance and extension of the City’s Water Infrastructure

Home Browse Search

Alan Plummer Associates, Inc. Water Master Plan Update 2016 2.3 REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS The rules and regulations for public water systems are established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in Title 30 of the Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 290, Subchapter D (30 TAC § 290). This chapter discusses the regulatory requirements applicable to public water system (in both existing and future years) with respect to water supply, storage, and pumping capacity. The code has recently been updated (September 2014) and changed how the number of service connections is defined for apartment complexes. service connections in an apartment complex would be equal to the number of individual cities like San Marcos that have a large portion of their population made up of college students who are housed in apartment complexes since the TCEQ capacity requirements are based on the number of connections in a system. Recently, the TCEQ provided the City with notice that their water supplies did not meet the requirements of 30 TAC § 290.45, which requires that systems have at least 0.6 gpm of water supply per connection. The new requirement based on the new definition of a connection appeared excessive as the City has never come close to utilizing all of its water supplies. The City applied for and received (June 11, 2015) a variance allowing an alternative capacity requirement (ACR) for their water supply requirements (more details in Chapter 2.3.1). While the ACR was specific to the water supply requirements, APAI believes that the concept is applicable to other capacity requirements as well. APAI recommends that the City use the same reduction in capacity requirements when considering the adequacy of other water system components. This is further explained in the following Subchapters pertaining to the water supply, storage, and pumping capacity regulatory requirements. 2.3.1 Water Supply The regulations found in 30 TAC § 290.45(b)(2) require that all surface water supplies meet a treatment plant capacity of 0.6 gpm per connection. The variance that the City received allowed a reduced total capacity requirement for production. The City was granted a minimum ACR as follows: Total Production (Groundwater + Surface Water) >= 0.32 gpm/connection Table 2-2 demonstrates that the City meets this ACR under existing and 2035 future conditions. 2-4 m:\projects\0600\022-01\doc\report\draft\draftmasterplan-v15_hef.docx