BEAUMONT, Texas — The preparations are nearing completion at Collier's Ferry Park for a new raw water pump. All because of lasting reminders from tropical storm Harvey.
"We had no potable water for a number of days," said Bart Bartkowiak, Director of Public Works.
When tropical storm Harvey hit Beaumont in 2017, the city lost it's main water supply at Collier's Ferry Park.
"All of our pumps were up and running until the flood level came to the point that they weren't so it shut down all of the raw water pumps," said Bartkowiak.
This left the city without water for more than a week.
Nearly 8 years later, the city of Beaumont has invested over $36 million dollars to go towards strengthening water infrastructure.
"The project that was approved as a new raw water pump station at Collier’s Ferry. That will be a 45 million gallon a day raw water pump station that's above the flood level that existed during Harvey. So the goal there is once it's complete, to have a water source that will be available even during another Harvey type event," said Bartkowiak
$9.5 million dollars will go towards the new main raw water pump station at Collier's Ferry Park.
"The new station has 45 million gallon a day capacity, the old station was pretty much maxing out at about 35 to 38 million gallons a day. So we'll have more water and from a pump station that's above that, that flood level," Bartkowiak said.
The money for the project is leftover from the riverfront bank stabilization provided by FEMA after Harvey, and leftover amounts are covered by the city's capital water fund.
"The whole point of all of this effort is to make sure that we do everything that we can to ensure that we're always able to provide potable drinking water to the citizens of Beaumont, even in another Harvey type event," said Bartkowiak.
The new pump station is estimated to be completed by the first quarter of 2025.