The Trinity River Authority of Texas

 

Texas State Capital
The Trinity River Authority of Texas is an independent political subdivision of the State of Texas.  Created by the Texas Legislature in 1955, the Authority has evolved into one of the largest of all of the Texas river authorities, primarily as a result of the geographic territory in which TRA provides service.
The Trinity River, and all of the other rivers in Texas, was formed when the primordial seas withdrew from the southwestern land mass of what is now the United States. Located in the eastern third of Texas, the Trinity River watershed is an extended drainage system.  The Trinity River watershed includes 17,965 square miles, or approximately six percent of the State’s landmass.  The Trinity River is the most developed watershed in the state. Since 1911 some 29 major reservoirs have been constructed within the Trinity River Basin. In addition five reservoirs located outside of the Trinity River Basin are either supplying, or are under contract to supply water to basin users. Trinity River Basin

The Trinity River serves as a primary water supply to more than 5.0 million people in the upper basin centered around the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, and an additional 4.8 million people on the upper Gulf Coast of Texas centered around the greater Houston metropolitan area. The Houston metropolitan area is outside of the Trinity River basin. According to the last census, these two regions contain approximately half of the state’s population. By every measure the Trinity River is the most strategically important water body in Texas.
Trinity River Authority Political Subdivision TRA’s political subdivision, shown in yellow in this image, includes approximately 14,000 square miles and is home to over 20 percent of the state’s population. The political subdivision’s boundaries are spelled out in metes and bounds in the statute creating the Authority.  This includes all or part of the 17 counties along the basin.  It is from within this political subdivision that the Authority’s Board of Directors is selected.
Three functions of TRA include maintenance of a basin-wide master plan, sponsorship of federal projects and providing water and wastewater related services within the political subdivision. Three functions of TRA

2007 Expenditures

For the fiscal Year 2007, which began on December 1, 2006, the Authority will be operating on a total budget of $167,866,160. Of this amount, 76.2 percent or $127,844,250 will be dedicated to operating funds for the Authority's water and wastewater-related projects. A total of 14.9 percent or $25,032,230 will be dedicated toward non-operating funds; 4.2 percent of $7,076,050 will be dedicated governmental funds; and 4.7 percent or $7,913,630 will be dedicated to internal service funds.

A further look at funds dedicated to our operating projects shows that $89,094,910 is dedicated toward the operation and maintenance of regional wastewater treatment and treatment facilities. TRA is the largest operator of regional wastewater treatment facilities in Texas. Water treatment activities total $32,462,200, water storage in Corps of Engineers and TRA owned and operated lakes total $5,705,970, and operating recreation facilities total $588,170.

2007 Project Expenditures

Upper Trinity Water Quality Compact Service Area Map Wastewater Treatment - The story of water in the Trinity River basin is one of use, and reuse and reuse again. During dry summer weather the base flow of the Trinity River is over 95 percent treated wastewater downstream of the D/FW metropolitan area. When impounded in TRA’s Lake Livingston in the lower basin area this same flow becomes a primary surface water supply for the greater Houston metropolitan
area.
The Upper Trinity Water Quality Compact plays a key role in cleaning up the water so that it can be reused. Membership includes TRA, the City of Fort Worth, the City of Dallas, and the North Texas Municipal Water District. These entities operate a series of regional wastewater treatment systems, the service areas of which can be seen in this image. Large regional facilities of this type allow customer entities to benefit from economies of scale and allow the operators of the systems the ability to narrowly focus capital improvement efforts.

The Compact was created by an interlocal agreement in 1975. This organization is dedicated to the collection of water quality data that allows regulatory agencies to base permitting and other regulatory decisions on solid scientific information.
With a treatment plant located in Grand Prairie, and more than 200 miles of pipeline, TRA’s Central Regional Wastewater Treatment System was named as the best large wastewater treatment plant in 1995 in the state of Texas by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission and as the best large plant in 1995 in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 6, a five-state area.

Central Regional Wastewater Treatment System

The system provides services for a population of over one million people. The Central Regional Wastewater System provides wastewater transportation and treatment services to all of Arlington, Bedford, Carrollton, Colleyville, Coppell, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Euless, Farmers Branch, Grand Prairie, Irving and Mansfield, and portions of Addison, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Duncanville, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Hurst, Keller, North Richland Hills and Southlake.

With the ability to treat 162 million gallons of wastewater per day, this regional treatment facility is one of the largest and best-operated plants in the state of Texas. This project’s staff works with state-of-the-art technology throughout the wastewater treatment process to produce a high quality discharge that helps protect the Trinity River’s water quality.