The area around Midland, Texas, has suffered from two years of severe drought. Midland depends on three surface reservoirs. Two of them are dry, and the third is nearly depleted. The region has already enacted water restrictions and drought contingency plans.
Black & Veatch was part of a public-private partnership led by Midland County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1 that was contracted to address the water supply shortages for the city of Midland. The city required that 20 million gallons of emergency water per day be available. The project met its deadline and began supplying water by May 2013.
Black & Veatch, together with Overland Contracting Inc., was responsible for the complete design, procurement and construction of the production wells, high-service pumping stations, storage tanks, chlorination facilities and terminal control facilities for this fast-track water supply and conveyance project.
“Midland is in a difficult situation, and Black & Veatch developed a unique solution by utilizing project delivery systems from previous work in North America and Australia in similar severe drought situations,” said Todd Larson, Project Manager, Black & Veatch. “We used all of those systems to lead our team in development of a design-build delivery plan that was completed in less than 12 months.”
Raw Water Wells
The project consisted of a new raw water well field on approximately 7,000 acres of land. Forty-five raw water wells were drilled to a depth of approximately 650 feet, with approximately one-half mile between wells.
“The vision for this project, and what gives me the most satisfaction, is to know that we assembled the best and brightest team in order to fulfill the contract.”
José Cuevas, President, Midland County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1
The well field tank was designed to hold 2 million gallons of water.
