Tyler Water Utilities looks to future of water system

TYLER — Tyler Water Utilities has been putting together a plan for the future of the city’s water system and what needs to be done to keep water flowing with an outside engineering consultant Halff Associates, according to our news partner KETK. “Here we’ve evaluated this, we’ve put this information into a water model, we’ve predicted what it looks like in the future, where we’re going to need projects to be done,” said Kate Dietz, Director of Utilities, City of Tyler. On Wednesday, Dietz presented the findings from the study to city council members. The big topic of discussion being population growth, and how the master plan would help. “We would be able to use to look at future growth potential issues in the future as far as population demands and water demands,” said Dietz.

The projects suggested by the engineering consultants come with a big price tag of $352.6 million. Dietz says not all the projects will get done. Adding the cost would be paid over more than two decades.

“These are projects over the next 25 years, so this covers a lot of years, those numbers are considerable, but it’s not, you know, all this year,” said Emily Wright, Civil Engineer, Halff Associates. “These projects range from have to get done, really should get done in the immediate future, critical, to all the way to this would be great if we could do this,” said Dietz. Dietz said she will take the plan back to city engineers to come up with a final plan. “We really pick it apart to determine what is it that really needs to get done and make sure that gets planned in our capital improvements plan,” said Dietz.

Adding they are trying to be future-ready as the population continues to grow in Tyler.