City Manager reveals plan to resolve city-wide water issues

ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – The City of Odessa is sharing more information about the future of the City’s water infrastructure. We sat down with Odessa City Manager John Beckmeyer to see what’s next, after multiple water line breaks have caused frustration in the city.

“I’ve actually found the money to fund quite a bit of repairs on our water infrastructure. So we’re looking at two pipelines, one down 42 ^nd Street and the Lancaster project, and those come up to somewhere around $14 million. And then the valves that I’ve been talking about over and over again, not being able to isolate, we also have a valve project where we’re replacing approximately 171 valves, and the price tag on that is around a little over $9 million. So what we’ve done is at the next City Council meeting, which will be next week, we’ll ask for $25 million to be transferred in. We’ve found it in some various funds to be transferred into an account to start doing these infrastructure projects,” said Beckmeyer.

Beckmeyer also said the money is generated by the wastewater plant and there’s also extra funds from a 2021 bond. He also noted the recent water line breaks have shown city hall that finding a solution needs to be done sooner rather than later.

“This is very concerning to me. When we had to shut the plant down the first time, that’s what I said. I’m like, this can’t happen. It’s just unacceptable for the city to be out of water. When I was first approached at the big break a couple months ago, I’m like, what happened last time this happened? They said we were out of water for three days. I said, that’s not even an option. The valves are critical. They just really are. If you have a break and you can isolate it and be in and out of the hole in, say, three or four hours, everybody will understand that. It’s the ones that take 10 hours, 15 hours, that shut down the whole city. Those are the ones that are the real problem,” continued Beckmeyer.

The City Manager added that the valve project will get underway quickly and that the City Council is set to approve the project next week.

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