How Tarrant Regional Water District helps nearly 1M Fort Worth residents receive their water

Tarrant Regional Water District , now celebrating 100 years of service , is responsible for providing water for over two million North Texas residents.

Raw water is collected and then either treated or used for irrigation, construction and other developments. TRWD is tasked with collecting and storing raw water and distributing it to sources.

TRWD’s coverage area includes 11 different counties and 30 commercial customers. Ninety percent of its demand is for Tarrant County.

With four supply lakes, three terminal storage lakes and more than 250 miles of underground pipeline, you can imagine the large area that TRWDsuccessfully serves.

The Star-Telegram spoke to TRWD about where Fort Worth’s water comes from, the lakes TRWD owns, the pipelines TRWD has built, and TRWD’s conservation efforts.

Why does Fort Worth need a water district?

In 1922, rainfall caused a deadly flood to surge through Fort Worth . The 11 inches of rainfall caused the Trinity River levees to overflow, and killed 10 people and caused $1 million in damage, according to TRWD.

“The only way damage done by the storm can be repaired will be by rebuilding the many homes and scores of outbuildings and fences that were practically destroyed, and in several instances entirely swept away,” the Star Telegram reported in April 1922.

Because of this catastrophe, TRWD was founded as “ Tarrant County Water Improvement District ” in 1924.

Fort Worth’s water source: Four man-made lakes

Shortly after the flood, both Bridgeport Lake and Eagle Mountain Lake in North Texas were dug up in 1932. However, it was not until 2010 that Eagle Mountain was utilized by TRWD. These two lakes, along with Lake Worth, are known as the “ West Fork system ” and are considered to be Fort Worth’s “bread and butter” for drinking water since they are so close to treatment plants, according to TRWD.

Cedar Creek Lake in east Texas was then built in 1965 as a reservoir for Tarrant County. It now serves as one of the area’s largest lakes, with the smallest and oldest attached pipeline. Cedar Creek will also eventually gain its own wetland, a natural filtration system, when construction begins in 2026.

Tarrant County currently has 2,000 acres of wetlands in Fairfield, about two hours south of Fort Worth. The water there flows down from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. This is a way for TRWD to conserve water it has the rights to, that might be wasted otherwise. The wetlands river stream eventually flows down to Houston and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Richland Chambers Lake , also in East Texas, was the last of Tarrant County’s reservoirs to be built. The lake was filled in 1989 and is the other largest lake along with Cedar Creek.

TRWD also has three terminal storage lakes in Fort Worth: Lake Benbrook, Lake Arlington and Lake Worth. During off seasons like fall and winter when the water demand is low, water will be pumped into these terminal storage lakes. When summer comes and demand is high, there will be water near the metroplex.

One notable project under TRWD’s belt is the integrated pipeline (IPL). This 150-mile pipe began construction in 2014. While there is still 10 to 15 years left of construction, the pipeline is already in use.

The $2 billion IPL is being made in collaboration with Dallas Water Utilities . This joint effort saves the two counties about $500 million, TRWD said.

“We [TRWD and Dallas Utilities] have a very good attitude of stewardship in the area, looking out for what’s going to be best for the entire region 50 years from now,” TRWD water resources engineering director Zach Huff said. “And how can we most efficiently provide the best water with resilience and redundancy at the highest quality and the lowest cost that we can decades out.”

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Getting water to Fort Worth through miles of pipeline

The IPL is so large, Huff says, you can drive a Mini Cooper through it. The pipe itself is made from steel with a nine-feet diameter. The valves that sit atop the pipelines are an estimated 40 feet. Huff says you have to build a whole building just to house the valves.

The IPL is a part of TRWD’s efforts to plan ahead. Since Fort Worth is growing quickly , the two currwent pipelines eventually won’t be enough to serve the city. IPL will aid in providing an additional 350 million gallons per day for both Tarrant and Dallas counties.

The IPL begins at Richland Chambers and Cedar Creek lakes and will transport water to Benbrook Lake in Fort Worth.

The other two pipelines attached to Richland Chambers and Cedar Creek are the smallest and oldest to serve Fort Worth. They both are pre-stressed concrete pipes with thin electromagnetic wires wrapped around to track pressure. Cedar Creek is only 72 inches in diameter, while Richland Chambers is 90 inches.

The electromagnetic wire inspection is how TRWD checks on which legs of the pipe need to be replaced or inspected without having to gut the whole line. The wire acts as a spring that holds the pipe together. When maintenance calls, the inspectors can then see which pipes have broken wires and that will tell them when they need to make replacements.

This is key for TRWD to ensure that there are no pipeline failures, damage to the city or extreme loss of water.

TWRD water conservation efforts

Since Texas has all kinds of weather, TRWD has to be prepared for everything. This is why conservation efforts matter the most.

However, Fort Worth residents play the biggest role in these efforts. TRWD dedicates a lot of their time to educating cities and customers on how to conserve water. It is up to the city and the people whether they put these practices into place.

Fort Worth encourages residents to save water through an irrigation schedule . You are allowed to handheld water your plants anytime, any day. But for lawns and built-in irrigation, the 2024 city ordinance is as follows:

• Houses ending in even numbers may water on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

• Houses ending in an odd number may water on Sundays and Thursdays.

• Non-residential locations may water on Tuesdays and Fridays.

TRWD also works on a 50-year plan annually to prepare for the future of a fastpgrowing metroplex. It looks at data from the worst drought in Texas history in the 1950s, and uses that as an example of how to prepare for drought.