Hollywood Road wastewater plant problems stem from 3 key issues, Amarillo official says

With three wastewater spills at its Hollywood Road Water Treatment Facility in a matter of three days last week, the city of Amarillo held a news conference Tuesday morning to address the failures of its facility to process the water.

From Wednesday to Friday of last week, the facility had more than 940,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater spill out into Playa Lake 40, which is adjacent to the plant. Containment of the third wastewater spill was accomplished by early Saturday morning. The city reported that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was notified and is working with the city to minimize environmental impacts on the area.

There have been various other wastewater spills at the plant this year, including a 3.9 million gallons wastewater spill on June 5. The spills have been an ongoing problem that was exasperated by the heavy flooding in the Amarillo area in early June.

Floyd Hartman, Amarillo assistant city manager, spoke about the recent spills, the condition of the plant and the city’s measures to mitigate the issues.

“There are three primary reasons for the state of the Hollywood Road plant,” said Hartman, “a lack of maintenance that goes back decades, the age of the plant and the recent flooding event that caused significant damage to the facility.”

Hartman said that recent flooding events have badly exposed the age and infrastructure of the plant.

“There is a tremendous amount of equipment and infrastructure that is deteriorating at this plant to the point of failure," Hartman said. “The recent flooding has magnified these weaknesses. When any industrial process is overloaded, it brings out the weakness in the system.”

He said that mechanical structures include those like the bar screens, which get the solids ready for the wastewater treatment process. Structural failures of concrete and metal within the plant have created issues with treating wastewater.

According to Hartman, many of the issues with the plant were not predicted to become problems until a few years from now. He said the recent flooding has sped up the deterioration of the plant’s ability to treat wastewater. At the same time, he said that of the significant amount of wastewater that has spilled over the past few months, the water has been treated with chlorine tablets to minimize economic impacts.

The Hollywood Road plant, built in 1965, has a treatment capacity of 12 million gallons a day and is the only facility in the area for septic waste disposal.

Hartman stated due to its placement on the flood plain, there will be a need for an additional facility in the future to not perpetuate that issue into future generations. When asked how much it would cost to build a new site or to make the current site work as it needs to, Hartman said it would be difficult to determine the total cost. Mitigation projects are ongoing and will include an expedited purchase of bar screens with plans to control sludge at the plant.

The city council has approved $17 million in repair and improvement projects at the facility, but upgrades will be in the hundreds of millions to complete the project. When asked if partial improvements will be effective rather than making a motion to fix all the issues, Hartman said that the repairs would still improve the capabilities of the current facility. He said that it takes time to design a new plant. A mechanism to fund a new facility will most likely involve some financing and working with a bond counsel to take the issue to the voters in the future.

At the Sept. 12 city council meeting, Hartman gave a presentation to the city council with six critical projects for the facility identified, including:

• Blowers

• Headwork

• Overall site electrical

• Influent pump station

• North secondary clarifiers

• Sludge

About $117,000 in repairs, including a refurbished gearbox for the facility, was to be discussed at Tuesday's city council meeting, which ended after press time. The component is vital for the basins that rake the sludge, which is critical for the viability of the plant to treat wastewater. According to Hartman, this purchase will be vital in keeping the plant from having complete failure.

State and federal disaster funds have been sought to help repair the facility, but due to certain restrictions, this funding has been hard to come by, according to Hartman.

Asked how long the plant can go without becoming an untenable situation, Hartman said the city is moving forward with a plan to design a facility to help solve the plant's issues.

Hartman said that the city is evaluating what it adds temporarily to its facility to be able to process waste without spills. Addressing lack of maintenance being a factor, Hartman said that many large pumps that take the waste into the bar screens are not working, creating spillage.

“The staff down there today are doing a great job of being proactive rather than reactive,” Hartman said. “Many of the repairs were not on the radar as a priority compared to other infrastructure projects, such as main replacements that impact the public on a daily basis. We have to do a better job of identifying our priorities.”

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: City of Amarillo gives update on Hollywood Road wastewater plant