At about 800 square feet, the Brazos River Authority's water testing lab in Waco could serve as a nice efficiency apartment. But it is not sized to adequately handle the organization's growing workload.
“We're on top of each other,” said Tiffany Malzahn, the authority's chief environmental and compliance officer. Not good considering the authority owns three lakes, contracts to supply water to eight federal flood control reservoirs and operates a regional wastewater system.
A solution may come as early as 2026, when Mazanec Construction completes a new nearly 11,000-square-foot lab at the Brazos River Authority headquarters on Cobbs Drive. Priced up to $11.3 million, it includes room for growth. Also planned is a 6,090-square-foot boat storage/workshop building with enclosed storage for four boats, covered parking for four trucks, a workshop, a sediment testing lab, and HVAC systems.
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That setup meets the challenges of monitoring water quality across a 42,000-square-mile territory that spans 70 counties, Malzahn said.
“The first one was too small. We've outgrown it and there's no room to expand,” Malzahn said. “Regulations have changed over the last 20 years. More analysis is needed. The physical requirements of our structure … we've been working with one hand behind our backs, creating a disruption in the work flow. We're being asked to more. and more sampling for a variety of projects, which may require additional equipment.”
The Brazos River Authority participates in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's coordinated monitoring program, regularly conducting 80 percent of the lake and river testing in the Brazos River Basin, Malzahn said. The Texas Clean Rivers Program, since 1991, forms a framework within which TCEQ and regional water authorities work to ensure clean surface waters.
The authority takes samples and tests water from more than 100 locations throughout the basin on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.
Malzahn said the Brazos River Authority is meant to meet increasingly stringent water purity demands. He said the existing lab can only test so many samples a day, a dilemma that more space and “duplicated equipment” could solve.
“Sometimes we get data queries,” Malzahn said. “Depending on the equipment and volume of samples needed, sometimes we have to outsource the work because we don't have the space to do it in-house.”
Malzahn said the Brazos River Authority has approved three lab positions, not including her, and is trying to fill a recently vacant position.
“I have a very large, very safety-conscious staff,” Malzahn said. “But it's getting to the point where conditions are very tight here.”
He said spending on new equipment is another issue for another time.
Challenges on the horizon, while not immediate, “include taking on the blue-green algae problems in the Colorado River Basin. We don't have a hard timeline, but as the population grows, we will have to enter it.”
As noted in a fact sheet, the new lab will have a lab exhaust system with fume hoods, hoods and snorkels; gas distribution system; centralized chemical waste neutralization system; HVAC system with “zoning”, designed to maintain a constant temperature for each work area and humidity levels greater than or equal to 60%.
It will also have a deionized water treatment and distribution system, a dedicated emergency generator and a waste warehouse.
The goal of the project, as defined in a fact sheet, is to “expand analytical and sample volume capabilities, improve operational efficiency and ensure capacity and readiness to meet future regulatory requirements.”
In 2008 the laboratory was accredited by TCEQ under the National Environmental Accreditation Program. It undergoes an audit every two years.
Water samples are analyzed for ammonia and organic nitrogen, phosphorus in the form of orthophosphate and total phosphorus. Chemists also look for mineral salts—chloride and sulfate—chlorophyll-a, which indicates algae growth, and pollution indicators E. coli and Enterococcus.
The Brazos River Authority built, owns, and operates Possum Kingdom, Granbury, and Limestone lakes, and contracts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for water storage at Whitney, Belton, Proctor, Somerville, Stillhouse Hollow, Granger, Georgetown and Aquilla, according to a fact sheet from the Brazos River Authority. The authority also operates the Temple-Belton wastewater treatment system and wastewater treatment facilities for several other Texas cities.
It was created by the Texas Legislature in 1929.
The authority was first housed temporarily at the Kyle Hotel in Temple and later at the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells. The organization moved to Waco in 1960, establishing permanent quarters at 4400 Cobbs Drive.
A new building was completed next door in 2002. It contains more than 70 offices, a central archive library, an environmental laboratory, a boardroom and various meeting facilities, according to a news release from the 'Brazos River Authority.
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