Dripping Springs City Council approves irrigation project for Sports and Recreation Park

DRIPPING SPRINGS — An irrigation project at the Sports and Recreation Park in Dripping Springs is expected to be complete in July.

At its June 18 meeting, Dripping Springs City Council unanimously approved the Beneficial Reuse Irrigation Project as part of an effort to bring reclaimed water to the fields at Sports and Recreation Park, located at 27148 Ranch Road 12.

To fully utilize the reclaimed water, city staff was seeking funding to retrofit the plumbing and irrigation at the facility. This would include the installation of a new potable water service line that would bring water to the restrooms and concessions, tying in reclaimed water to the existing irrigation system and installing new irrigation at both adult softball fields.

“The basis of this project is to better utilize the reclaimed water being brought to Sports [and Recreation] Park through the Heritage Treated effluent line along Ranch Road 12 and Rob Shelton,” said Utilities Director Dane Sorenson.

According to the city, completing this project would have the following benefits: conserving water resources by using reclaimed water for irrigation, potential revenue from the sale of reclaimed water, the better management of turf on the fields and fulfilling the obligation to the wastewater agreement with the Heritage subdivision.

This also fills a prerequisite for a $45,000 budgeted project in FY25 for field improvements to the adult softball fields at Sporks and Recreation Park.

The city has solicited eight contracts for this project and has received two bids: Kyle Irrigation bid $60,041.70 for the installation of the new irrigation at the adult softball fields and Watertech Construction bid $18,600 for the installation of new plumbing required to separate the water and reuse systems. An additional $5,000 will be needed to bring the existing irrigation system into compliance with TCEQ by retrofitting it with purple identifiers, bringing the total cost of the project to $83,841.70.

“The funding of this project will be brought through the reuse fees line item and the utility fund,” Sorenson said.

Mayor Bill Foulds questioned if the project will be complete by mid-August, due to the community's interest in using the fields for various leagues.

At the time of the meeting, construction will start on June 24 and completetion is anticipated by July 8, Sorenson said.

Council will meet next on July 2.