Midland to clean 15-million-gallon reservoir after 14 years

The city of Midland will clean out the Backdoor Reservoir at the Water Purification Plant, which has needed to be emptied and cleaned for more than a decade. The Midland City Council approved a $356,250 contract with C&B Materials of Texas LLC to complete the work.

“It has been full for the last 14 years, meaning we haven’t pulled it down since CRMWD gave it to us (at that time),” said city of Midland utilities director Carl Craigo. “We have been doing projects throughout this timeframe to get to a point where we can get that pulled down and cleaned out.”

Craigo said his department noticed turbidity problems at the reservoir in January and February, prompting the city to deem the situation an emergency. Cleaning the reservoir involves clearing out accumulated sediment, debris and other solids to preserve storage capacity and maintain reliable, continuous plant operations.

“For the first time in 14 years, that’s 15 million gallons of that reservoir, we can have (it) full of water without any solids in it,” Craigo said. “It also allows us now to take that reservoir down every two years and see if we need to clean it out, and then fill it back up if we do. It’s really going to keep a lot of turbidity out of our water.”

Three vendors submitted bids for the cleanup project. An initial selection was rejected in favor of C&B Materials of Texas, which Councilman-at-Large John Burkholder said saved the city nearly $220,000.