MIDLAND, Texas — Tuesday morning Midland City Council passed a motion for the city to move forward with a contract with Parkhill Engineering Services to help manage two of our ground water sources.
One source is the T Bar ground water source and another is the Fort Stockton water source.
“They are both ground water sources so having the same engineering firm help us with entire mound of ground water sources is a good idea but overall it is two different ideas. One is direct engineering and administrative services and one is more of a let’s look for a route and help us find that route," said Carl Craigo, City of Midland Utilities Director.
According to Craigo, next steps is to look at water routes.
"With them passing the contract today the next step with be probably putting together three different routes that make sense to get that water to the City of Midland. So I'll be contacting the engineering company and we’ll start looking for routes," said Craigo.
As for the cost, the project is expected to cost between $300-$400 million as time goes on.
"Contract $1.4 million just owning the water rights in Fort Stockton, for the project as a whole to bring that water source here to midland and advanced filtration it’ll be between 300-400 million dollars somewhere down the road," he said.
Craigo also stresses the importance of the city making sure it has enough water sources for the future.
"City has look 50-60 years out for the water source for Midland. If you’re not looking into that distance then you could be in water trouble. There’s cities all over Texas that are in water trouble they don’t have enough sources. We want to ensure we have a surplus of sources," said Craigo.