Public water system design and TCEQ Chapter 290 approval in Texas

What it covers

In Texas, a public water system has at least 15 service connections, or serves at least 25 people at least 60 days a year. A subdivision planned for 15 or more homes on its own wells can count before the homes are built. TCEQ regulates these systems under 30 TAC Chapter 290, and its design rules are in Subchapter D.

A new system needs written TCEQ approval of its plans before construction starts. An existing system needs approval before a significant change. A Texas licensed professional engineer designs the system and seals the plans. TCEQ reviews them.

This page covers the source, storage and pumps, and the TCEQ approval. For mains and pressure, see water distribution. For booster stations, see pump and lift stations. For one building's tap, meter and backflow, see water service plans.

When you need one

• A subdivision or site with no provider that can serve it, planned for 15 or more connections on its own wells.
• An existing system adding a well, a tank or a pump station.
• A distribution change that moves the connection count by more than 10%, leaves the system short of required capacity, or ties into another public water system.

In a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, or within half a mile of a district or another provider's certificated service area, you first ask that provider for service in writing. You build your own system only if service is denied or its cost is not feasible.

Not under contract yet? Our fixed-fee pre-acquisition utility screen covers CCN status, capacity, the pathway, a cost range and the permit calendar. The fee is credited toward our design and permitting if you go ahead.

What we do

1. Confirm a new system is the answer. We check who holds the certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN) on the land, send the written service requests the rule calls for, and read TCEQ's regionalization guidance for new systems. Where a groundwater conservation district exists, we check its rules for a new well.
2. Set the capacity tier. The buildout connection count sets the Chapter 290 minimums for well capacity, storage and service pumps. They are minimums, not a design.
3. Site and design the well. We hold the separation distances from sewers, septic systems and treatment plants, and plan the sanitary control easement, the casing and the cement grout the rule requires. Before the well serves anyone, TCEQ approves the driller's log, the cementing certificate, the bacteriological and chemical test results and the easements.
4. Design treatment and storage. All groundwater is disinfected before distribution. The water analysis decides whether more treatment is needed.
5. Model the system. We check pressure and fire flow in a hydraulic model, usually EPANET, and get the fire flow from the local fire authority early.
6. Prepare the TCEQ package. A cover letter, the plan review submittal form, an engineering report, and sealed plans and specifications. A new system adds a Core Data Form, a notarized Financial Ability Form, financial documents, the requests for service and, for a community system, a business plan.
7. Carry it through review. Where a design cannot meet one standard, TCEQ lets a system request an exception by proposing another way to meet the rule's intent.

On a rural Texas ranch, we agreed a 1,500 gpm fire flow for sprinklered buildings with the fire chief, modeled the project's water systems in EPANET and added a pressure reducing valve where model pressures ran near 120 psi.

What you get

• A source, capacity and fire flow answer before design, checked with a hydraulic model.
• An engineering report, plans and specifications for the wells, treatment, tanks and pumps in your scope, checked by an engineer who did not write them and sealed by a Texas licensed professional engineer.
• The TCEQ plan review package, with the new system forms when the system is new.

What affects time and cost

• Nearby providers. Their written answers to your service requests come before your own system.
• The connection count. It sets the capacity tier, and with it the well, storage and pump sizes.
• The fire flow. The local fire authority sets it, and it often sets main size and storage.
• The well site. Separation distances, a recorded easement and passing test results all come before the well can serve anyone.
• The owner. The owner entity has to exist to sign the financial forms. The checklist items can take longer to gather than the plans.
• TCEQ's clock. TCEQ asks for detailed plans at least 30 days before you need comments, and it does not promise action in that time. TCEQ decides every submittal, so we never promise an approval date.