The city of San Marcos will spend $104.4 million to advance several new water and wastewater capital projects, including the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
The approved amount will cover initiatives within the Fiscal Year 2026 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The issuance of debt will only cover this year’s short-term projects.
The total 2026 CIP project costs round out to around $143.4 million split across four categories:
- Water/wastewater – $104.4 million.
- General fund – $16.2 million.
- Electric – $16 million.
- Stormwater – $6.8 million.
Water and wastewater projects take up the majority of the budget, with the planned WWTP project accounting for $80 million. The remaining funding will support other related water initiatives.
The WWTP improvements will largely consist of building a new 2 million gallons per day (mgd) facility to accommodate development flows and offset loads from the existing WWTP. The new plant will provide additional treatment capacity, allowing the city to handle increases in flows without expanding the current WWTP.
The remaining $24.4 million will cover other assorted water and wastewater projects, including:
- Reconstructing downtown alleys to underground power lines and improving drainage infrastructure.
- Installing bike and pedestrian infrastructure facilities, a center turn lane and replacing utilities and stormwater infrastructure along roadways.
- Extending 12-inch water mains.
- Relocating lake discharge overflow pipe and drainage.
- Expanding fiber optic infrastructure.
- Improving deteriorated wastewater infrastructure.
- Rehabilitating wastewater lines.
- Expanding a lift station to four pumps and improving electricity and controls.
While the budget outlines a significant investment in water and wastewater infrastructure, the city council has only officially signed off on $93.1 million in debt issuance to cover costs.
Photo by Tim Sheerman-Chase, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, from Wikimedia Commons
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