Plans to build Lake Ringgold in Clay County have moved a step further after an amendment is approved by the Wichita Falls City Council.
City leaders have floated this option for quite some time, but now, they’re taking a new step to build Lake Ringgold as an alternate water source in case of another drought.
2011 began the worst drought on record in Texas and Wichita Falls officials say they want to make sure if it happens again – they are ready.
“We did well making it through this new drought of record but we do need to continue to develop new supplies to accommodate our needs for future and present growth.”
In March of last year, the City Council entered into an agreement with Freese and Nichols, Inc. an engineering / architecture firm to prepare and submit a water rights application to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for the proposed Lake Ringgold.
The initial application was prepared and submitted at a cost of $168 thousand dollars – but the TECQ changed the permitting process and now several studies need to be done before the application can be considered complete.
The studies needed are a habitat assessment, stream assessment, conceptual mitigation plan, updated water availability modeling and an accounting plan. They should take about 12 months to complete.
Today the City Council passed a motion to amend the engineering services agreement with Freese and Nichols, Inc. to include up to $360 thousand dollars more for the studies. City officials say time is of the essence.
“It takes a long time to build a reservoir so we need to go ahead and start those permitting processes and start the overall project quickly.”
Once the studies are complete – all of the documentation should be sufficient for an approvable water rights application.
Lake Ringgold would be situated in Clay County on 6500 acres northeast of Henrietta. The city needs to purchase an additional 10 to 12 thousand acres to build the lake. The total cost to build Lake Ringgold will be just over $300 million dollars and it will take about 15 to 30 years to complete.
– Newschannel 6
