Mineral Wells, water district set financing in motion for Turkey Peak Reservoir

Weatherford Democrat
by By Glenn Evans gevans@weatherforddemocrat.com
October 20, 2023 at 10:27AM

MINERAL WELLS — The water district that supplies Mineral Wells and its wholesalers joined the city council on Tuesday to start the money stream for Turkey Peak Reservoir.

Actions in the joint meeting in Mineral Wells involved seeking or moving $289.5 million for the lake planned immediately off the Lake Palo Pinto dam, a new water treatment plant and other infrastructure.

The total included $12 million the lake district has already been awarded in a low-interest loan from the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund.

The SWIFT loans from the Texas Water Development Board are for land acquisition, final design, archeological recovery and initial utility relocations.

Some of that work includes some road design for Ward Mountain Road, which will become the new route for a part of Farm-to-Market 4 that will be covered once the new lake fills in.

The Texas Department of Transportation, which has begun an evaluation of FM 4 that takes in more than the lake’s effect on transportation, did not reply to an email this week asking its FM 4 planning progress.

“This is the last preparation phase,” bond counsel Rodolfo Segura Jr. told the group, meeting in the Steve Perdue Fire Training Center conference hall. “The next phase will be to build a dam.”

Segura also told the combined panels that Turkey Peak is permitted, land acquisition is 94 percent complete and is ahead of similar projects statewide.

The project also has passed through mandatory environmental and archeological evaluations.

“In terms of all the lakes in Texas, I can’t think of one that’s further ahead,” he said, after pointing out the lake’s cost has doubled since 2011 when it was estimated at $100 million.

The lake itself is projected to cost $200 million. A remaining $77.5 million will replace the city’s 61-year-old Hilltop Water Treatment Plant ($41.4 million), upgrade a 3.2-mile pipeline ($29 million) and upgrade wastewater reuse capacity at the city’s sewage treatment plant ($7 million).

A $62,136 contingency fund is built in for unplanned expenses.

Speaking on timing for issuing the $277.5 million revenue bond, public finance advisor Marti Shew told the joint meeting it will occur in multiple steps.

“But each debt issuance has to be brought back to the (lake district) board and the city council for approval,” she added.

The $277.5 million is also the most that can be spent on the lake and the other projects.

The most recent timeline for Turkey Peak projected dam completion is by late 2027.

The project is seen as offering superior water storage to Lake Palo Pinto, which is relatively wide and shallow and thus more vulnerable to evaporation.

Turkey Peak is designed to hold 50,000 acre feet, about 15.9 billion gallons, in a smaller footprint. It would add 83 percent more water to the district’s water pitcher.

The city buys water from the district under a 1981 contract.

That water is then sold to city users plus seven water wholesalers serving some 31,000 taps in Palo Pinto and south and western Parker counties.

Lake Palo Pinto on Thursday afternoon was measured at 855.57 feet mean sea level. That’s 11.43 feet from its full level and below the 856 trigger for Stage 3 drought restrictions.

Those are being held at bay for now, in hopes of rains arriving with the milder months.