Dallas Water Utilities

Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) is the municipal water and wastewater department of the City of Dallas, Texas. It supplies treated drinking water, manages raw-water resources, operates the city’s water distribution network, collects and treats wastewater, and provides related customer, metering, conservation, stormwater, engineering, and capital-improvement services. In addition to serving Dallas residents and businesses, DWU has contractual wholesale relationships with numerous nearby municipalities, regional water entities, and institutional customers. The organization traces its municipal operating history to 1881, when Dallas purchased a privately owned water company and established the City of Dallas Waterworks. The early system relied on local sources, including Browder Springs, but the city moved toward surface-water supplies as population and demand increased. Dallas began using the Trinity River and constructed reservoirs and other water-supply infrastructure during the twentieth century. Its current raw-water portfolio includes Lake Ray Hubbard, Lewisville Lake, Grapevine Lake, Ray Roberts Lake, Lake Tawakoni, and Lake Fork Reservoir, along with additional water rights and regional supply arrangements. DWU is a non-profit city department whose operating costs are funded through customer charges for water and wastewater services rather than general tax revenues. Its rates are intended to reflect the cost of providing the services. The department operates through functional areas covering business and financial operations, customer operations, water operations, wastewater operations, and capital improvement operations. These functions encompass billing and collections, meter services, conservation programs, treatment and pumping, distribution and collection-system maintenance, regulatory compliance, engineering, construction, and long-term asset renewal. The utility’s physical infrastructure is extensive. Its potable-water system includes thousands of miles of transmission and distribution mains, pump stations, storage reservoirs, elevated tanks, pressure zones, monitoring points, and customer meters. DWU owns and operates three principal drinking-water treatment plants: the Bachman, Elm Fork, and East Side facilities. Its wastewater responsibilities include a collection network of more than 4,000 miles, lift stations, interceptor and collector sewers, and the Central and Southside wastewater treatment plants. Water conservation has been a continuing part of DWU’s public-service role since the early 1980s. Programs have included educational activities for children, Water-Wise landscape seminars, landscape demonstrations and tours, and regulatory limits on outdoor irrigation. Dallas adopted an irrigation ordinance in 2001 and later moved to a maximum twice-weekly watering schedule in 2012. According to the department’s cited historical material, these measures helped reduce per-capita water use while producing substantial water and energy savings. DWU also participates in long-range regional planning. Its water-supply planning has addressed projected demand through 2050, conservation, emergency water management, and cooperation with neighboring wholesale customers and regional providers. The department’s role is therefore broader than retail utility service: it is a major municipal infrastructure operator and a participant in the interconnected water-supply and wastewater systems of the Dallas–Fort Worth region.

Dallas’s public water-service history began in the nineteenth century. Private owners developed an early public water supply in 1876, while the first sewers were built during the 1880s, initially for stormwater drainage. At that time, street runoff and domestic sewage were discharged directly into the Trinity River. In 1881, the City of Dallas purchased the private water company serving the community and created the municipal City of Dallas Waterworks, the institutional predecessor of Dallas Water Utilities. Browder Springs initially supplied the city, but the source proved inadequate as Dallas expanded. The city consequently turned to surface water and reservoir development. By 1903, Trinity River supplies and manmade lakes were becoming part of the water system. During the twentieth century, Dallas built a regional-scale supply and treatment network, eventually drawing raw water from several North Texas reservoirs and establishing infrastructure to move, treat, store, and distribute water across the city and to neighboring customers. Wastewater management also evolved in response to population growth and regulation. In the early period, untreated wastewater flowed into the Trinity River. A 1913 Texas anti-pollution law required larger cities to stop discharging untreated wastewater into streams. Dallas responded by completing a wastewater treatment plant in January 1917 with an initial design capacity of approximately six million gallons per day. The facility was expanded during the 1920s, and service later extended to Highland Park and University Park in the 1930s. In 1964, the Central wastewater system was supplemented by a Southside oxidation-pond facility, subsequently known as the Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant. The modern department combines business administration, customer service, water production and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, and capital planning. Its water system includes three major drinking-water treatment plants: Bachman, Elm Fork, and East Side. Bachman began treatment operations in 1930 and was expanded over time. East Side and Elm Fork became major components of the city’s high-capacity treatment system. The distribution network developed into one of the largest municipal systems in the United States, with extensive mains, pumping facilities, pressure zones, storage assets, and supervisory monitoring. The wastewater network similarly expanded into a basin-based system. Dallas organizes its extensive sewer infrastructure around primary drainage basins and smaller sewersheds, with flows directed either to city treatment facilities or to regional providers. The Central Wastewater Treatment Plant developed from the early twentieth-century facility into a complex using primary treatment, trickling filters, activated sludge, clarification, and disinfection. The Southside facility provides additional treatment capacity. Since the early 1980s, conservation has become a central element of DWU’s customer and resource-management work. Educational programming and Water-Wise landscaping initiatives were followed by an irrigation ordinance adopted by the Dallas City Council in 2001. In 2012, the city adopted a maximum twice-weekly outdoor-watering schedule based on address-number assignments. The department has attributed significant reductions in per-capita consumption and large cumulative water savings to conservation and related measures. DWU now operates as a City of Dallas department and serves both retail customers inside Dallas and wholesale customers in surrounding communities and regional jurisdictions. Its planning includes long-term supply development, emergency water management, regulatory compliance, system rehabilitation, and cooperation with regional water providers. The department is funded through water and wastewater rates and does not depend on general tax revenues for its operating budget.

• 2012

  Maximum twice-weekly watering adopted

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  Dallas adopted a schedule limiting outdoor irrigation to no more than twice weekly, organized around even and odd street addresses.

• 2001

  Irrigation ordinance adopted

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  The Dallas City Council adopted an irrigation ordinance that included time-of-day outdoor-watering restrictions.

• 1964

  Southside wastewater facility added

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  The Central wastewater system was supplemented by a Southside oxidation-pond facility, later identified as the Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant.

• 1930

  Bachman Water Treatment Plant begins operations

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  The Bachman Water Treatment Plant began treating drinking water and was subsequently expanded several times.

• 1917

  Central wastewater treatment begins

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  Dallas completed a Central Wastewater Treatment Plant with an initial design capacity of approximately six million gallons per day.

• 1913

  State anti-pollution requirement

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  Texas enacted a requirement for larger cities to end the discharge of untreated wastewater into streams.

• 1903

  Shift toward surface-water resources

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  Because Browder Springs could not meet growing demand, Dallas began relying more heavily on the Trinity River and manmade lakes.

• 1881

  City establishes municipal waterworks

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  Dallas purchased the privately owned water company serving the city and created the municipal City of Dallas Waterworks.

• 1876

  Early public water supply developed

  [1]Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org

  Private owners established an early public water-supply service in Dallas.

A city-owned, rate-funded public utility providing integrated water, wastewater, conservation, and infrastructure services for Dallas and surrounding wholesale customers.

• Water supply

  Retail drinking-water service

  DWU supplies treated potable water to residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial customers within Dallas. Water is drawn from regional reservoirs and other authorized sources, treated at city-owned plants, pumped through pressure zones, stored in ground and elevated facilities, and delivered through an extensive distribution network.

• Water supply

  Wholesale water service

  Through contractual relationships, DWU provides treated water, untreated water, irrigation-only supplies, and reciprocal water services to nearby municipalities, regional districts, and other governmental or institutional customers.

• Wastewater utility · 1917

  Wastewater collection and treatment

  DWU collects domestic and industrial wastewater through a large sewer network, transports flows through interceptor and collector systems, and treats them at the Central and Southside wastewater treatment plants before regulated discharge.

• Conservation service · 1980

  Water conservation programs

  DWU’s conservation work includes public education, children’s activities, Water-Wise landscape seminars, landscape demonstrations and tours, irrigation guidance, and support for watering restrictions intended to reduce demand and protect long-term supplies.

• Utility customer service

  Metering and customer operations

  Customer operations cover account management, billing, credit and collections, customer relations, meter services, and conservation outreach. The system includes more than 300,000 meters, including advanced-metering infrastructure units.

• 2012Maximum twice-weekly watering schedule

  Dallas, Texas

  The Dallas City Council adopted a maximum twice-weekly outdoor-irrigation schedule based on even and odd street addresses.

  Outcome. The cited material reports that conservation measures collectively reduced gallons per capita per day by 26 percent from 2001 and generated substantial cumulative water savings.

  Source
• 2001Irrigation ordinance

  Dallas, Texas

  Dallas adopted an irrigation ordinance introducing time-of-day restrictions and strengthening the regulatory side of the utility’s conservation strategy.

  Outcome. The measure became part of a broader set of actions credited with reducing per-capita water consumption.

  Source
• 1980Dallas water-conservation program

  Dallas, Texas

  DWU began a sustained conservation program involving public education, children’s activities, Water-Wise landscaping seminars, and related customer initiatives.

  Outcome. The program expanded over time and supported later irrigation rules and demand-reduction measures.

  Source

• 2012

  Move to maximum twice-weekly wateringStrategy

  Background

  Dallas continued to pursue lower per-capita consumption and more resilient management of outdoor irrigation.

  Action taken

  The City Council approved a maximum twice-weekly watering schedule using even- and odd-address assignments.

  Aftermath

  The measure formed part of the conservation actions associated with reported reductions in per-capita water use.

  Source

• 2001

  Adoption of irrigation restrictionsStrategy

  Background

  Growing demand and long-term supply-management concerns led Dallas to strengthen its conservation framework.

  Action taken

  The City Council adopted an irrigation ordinance containing time-of-day watering restrictions.

  Aftermath

  The ordinance became an important component of the city’s demand-management program.

  Source

1. 1Dallas Water Utilitiesen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Dallas Water Utilities official department pagedallascityhall.com