Lago Vista waits on golf wastewater pipe, staff puts it at $1.5M

Former public works director Dave Stewart had told a city golf committee in October it could be done for less than $200,000.^7,8 The mayor suggested that staff bring it back if new facts show the golf course could go dry for more than a short time.¹ When we wrote this story, the city had not posted minutes for this meeting. This story is based on the meeting video.⁹

What the pipe does

The pipe carries effluent, which is treated wastewater, from a holding pond called Pond 17. It is a plastic pipe that went in around 1971. Today it feeds the golf course sprinklers.³ The city spreads its effluent on the golf course and at a city site called Cedar Breaks.¹⁰

The city is putting in a new sprinkler system and has built a new pond, Pond 2. Once the new system runs, the old pipe will only move effluent from Pond 17 to Pond 2.³ That switch comes when the sprinkler job is done, now set for January, a speaker told the council.² The City Council decides whether to replace the pipe.¹¹

How it got here

The leftover bond money already had another proposed use.¹² On Sept. 17, the mayor asked the council to set aside about $2.2 million left from the 2024 bonds for a filter that would treat effluent to a higher grade, called Type 1.^12,13

Our Oct. 29 story covered the push to replace the pipe now.¹⁴ It began at the council's Oct. 15 meeting, when Stewart said during citizen comments that the pipe could go in for "about $200,000 maybe right now."¹⁵ A council member answered that a test at about 130 pounds of pressure found "zero leak." Once Pond 2 is in service, the member said, the line is "going to virtually have no pressure at all."¹⁶

On Oct. 27, the city's Golf Course Advisory Committee voted to draft a change order, which adds work to a contract already under way.^14,17 The motion aimed to give the draft to Council Member Jess Hall so he could put it on the Nov. 5 council agenda.¹⁴ Stewart, who ran the city's Public Works Department from 2005 until about 2016, told the committee the line "should be able to be replaced for less than $200,000."^7,8

Before the meeting

Hall put the item on the Nov. 5 agenda. The packet for the item holds a staff memo, not a change order.¹¹ The memo, dated Oct. 29, is from Ernesto Rios, the city's Director of Public Works. It recommends "not including the replacement of the transmission line from pond 17 to pond 2 with the current scope of the irrigation project."³

The memo says the $200,000 price, for about 4,926 feet of pipe, came from bid prices in the sprinkler contract. Those prices apply to the sprinkler contractor's own pipe work, the memo says. The old line "involves a different engineer and different specifications."³

The memo says Finance has not verified the "approximately $2 million" said to be left in the budget. Work at Pond 17, Pond 14, and the Cedar Breaks pond is still pending, and those costs have to be weighed first. The memo calls for a separate project later, after the city checks the money left and gets an engineer's estimate.³

The Nov. 5 meeting

The council met in its chambers at 5803 Thunderbird for a regular meeting.¹⁸ The pipe was item 10 of the work session, set for "Discussion and possible action."^11,18 The mayor, listed on the agenda as Shane R. Saum, opened the item and said Hall brought it forward on the golf committee's advice.^18,19 The mayor said he thought the committee wanted the council to discuss it further after its last meeting.¹⁹

Hall asked whether replacing the line was part of the original sprinkler proposal, and at what cost. He also asked why the contractor already on the job could not do it now through a change order.²⁰

A staff member answered, "It was not." In the staff member's account, the line belongs to a different project with "different engineering." The sprinkler contract's prices cover only moving a line on the golf course. A transmission line has to be built by a utility contractor to different specifications.⁴

Using real utility contractors, it would cost about $1.5 million, the staff member said. Bond money is left, but Pond 14 still needs repair, Pond 17 needs work, and the Cedar Breaks pond is leaking.⁴ The line has reached its life expectancy and needs to be replaced, "but we have to prioritize."²¹

After the change, the line will stay under pressure, at about 60 pounds per square inch (PSI) by staff's estimate.²¹ Today it runs at about 120 PSI to water the whole course.²²

Hall asked whether the city has a plan for when the line breaks.²¹ Crews would "jump on it right away," the staff member said. The city already has the line's engineered plans and could bid out a replacement when needed. About four years ago, city staff moved a section of the line that ran under a customer's backyard, and the work took about a week.²³

Council Member Amanda Chavarria asked about the pressure, because she had expected a low-pressure line.^22,23 The answer was that the line is "functioning well right now" and will "last a little longer." People keep saying the city has $2 million, the staff member said, and added, "We really don't." There are too many other things to repair first.²²

Chavarria said she was glad to hear the work could not have been part of the sprinkler job. She said $200,000 to prevent a failure is "a drop in the bucket." But "if it's 1.5 or more, that's a lot bigger ask," she said.²⁴

Council Member Karen Van Ness asked staff to confirm that the line will only move water between two ponds, so a failure would not be as serious. She also noted that Stewart had raised mobilization fees and cost savings. Staff said a different crew would have to be hired through proper procurement, so the city "wouldn't be saving that money anyway."²⁵

A speaker on the dais agreed the pipe will need replacing someday, "but it just doesn't feel like it's a priority to me." That speaker said they never believed the line would stay at 120 PSI. Staff said it did not recommend replacing the pipe now, "considering other projects that we have."²⁶

A council member then laid out what a break would mean. The city could not send effluent to the golf course until the line was fixed, but it could still spread it at Cedar Breaks. A staff member said Pond 2 is large and would give crews maybe a week to make repairs. The council member said it made sense to wait for "more staff time and money to do it."¹⁰

Mayor Pro Tem Norma Owen asked Rios whether a break could bring violations from the state's environmental agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).^13,18,27 Rios said it could, past a certain amount of effluent, because the city has a permit to disperse it. He said staff turns off the pumps as soon as it finds a leak.²⁷

Public comments and the council's response

Mike DeSosa, who serves on the golf committee, spoke during public comments on the item. He called the old line an "unnecessary risk" that could do "reputational harm" to the golf course. If it broke in a dry summer, he said, "The golf course would turn brown again." That would hurt revenue and waste the money spent to make the course green, he said.²⁸

DeSosa said he had hoped Stewart would be there. The reply from the dais was that Stewart had emailed the council.²⁸

A council member told DeSosa that a break looked like "a matter of days" without water, not months. DeSosa said he had heard a full replacement after a major break could take 8 to 10 weeks. He said one break could lead to more, but he added, "I'm not an engineer."²⁹

The mayor then suggested that staff "bring that back to us for reconsideration" if new facts show the pond could run dry for long.¹ Chavarria said she hoped the city would have a backup plan, such as trucking in water, paid for by an emergency budget change. She asked that the golf committee recommend such a plan to the council.³⁰

A second speaker from the public said the jump from $200,000 to $1.5 million "seems like a crazy jump." The speaker asked the council to look at any way to fix the line for $250,000 or less. A long break, the speaker said, "might be one week followed by another week followed by three more weeks."³¹

Planning for a break

Owen asked whether replacing the line is in any city plan. A staff member said it is not in a current plan. Owen said she hoped it would go into the broader engineering plans the city is updating, so committees and residents can see where it stands. A staff member said the city keeps "a very long list of concerns."³²

A council member said the city should have a plan for what it would do, what it would cost, and how the work would be done if the line fails. The member said they were not proposing that the work be done now.³³

Council Member Adam Benefield asked how long Pond 2 could water the course after a break. A staff member, called on as Victor, said the pond holds about 8.2 million gallons, enough for about 20 days at normal use. Watering half as much would stretch that to about a month and a half, he said.² Those were the first figures on Pond 2's storage given that night, and they ran longer than the week mentioned earlier.^2,10

Benefield said that once the change is made, a break would no longer shut down watering on the whole course. If the risk to the golf course rises, he said, "let's bring that back up."² The council moved on to the next item without a motion.^2,34

What it could mean for taxpayers

The leftover money is from 2024 certificates of obligation (CO), a kind of city bond.³⁵ The 2026-27 budget sets $545,000 in principal and $1,117,125 in interest on those 2024 bonds. That comes to $1,662,125 in the 2026-27 budget year.⁵ The city's Debt Service fund pays those bonds, and its money comes mostly from property taxes, budgeted at $4,387,819 that year.^5,6

The budget book's table of 2024 bond projects shows $1,557,742.89 still set aside for effluent ponds and $290,033.77 for the golf irrigation job. The same table warns its amounts "have not been independently reconciled or validated by the Finance Department."³⁵

No record we reviewed sets the cost of a new line.³ Staff's $1.5 million figure was spoken at the meeting, and the memo says the cost still has to be set by an engineer and bidding.^3,4

What we could not find

• An engineer's estimate for replacing the line. Staff's memo says one is still needed.³
• The verified balance of the 2024 bond money. The memo says Finance has not confirmed it.³
• The costs of the work at Pond 17, Pond 14, and the Cedar Breaks pond. The memo says they are not set.³
• Stewart's email to the council, mentioned at the meeting.²⁸
• Minutes of this meeting. The city had not posted them when we wrote this.⁹

What you can do

• Ask the city for the engineer's estimate and for Finance's balance of the 2024 bond money.³⁶
• Watch for the line to return to a council agenda. The mayor asked staff to bring it back if new facts change the risk.¹
• Speak at a council meeting during public comments, as DeSosa did.²⁸