P.U.B. TO NAME NEW SANITARY SEWER TREATMENT PLANT

By Juan Montoya
The Brownsville Public Utility Board has announced it will build a state-of-the-fart multimillion sewer treatment plant in the northern reaches of  the city and is looking for a worthy candidate to name if after.
The new plant will be located north of FM 511 – also called the Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. Highway – and is expected to handle the loads from new subdivisions north of that thoroughfare.
Although the city and the PUB do n ot have set guidelines to name buildings and municipal facilities, it is expected that the public will nominate worthy personages to name it after.
The two main existing treatment plants are only designated as the Robindale Wastewater Treatment plant and the Southside Wastewater Treatment Facility on East Avenue.
Readers will remember that the odor emanating from the Southside plant discouraged the University of Texas System from accepting the land directly across from the plant on East Avenue. City fathers (including Da Mayor) quickly offered them existing Lincoln Park about a mile away and free of the offensive odor.
That's when the stuff hit the fan and city attorney Mark Sossi said in court that the city was not going to donate the park to the UT System, but merely to "convey" it to them at a price far below its market value.
Not too many city commissioners came away from that incident smelling too nicely and some even backtracked to get away from the political smear.
Since then, Commissioner Ricardo Longoria has reported almost at every subsequent city meeting that the stink-defeating efforts using chemicals at the plants and lift stations is coming along and residents could expect the situation to improve.
We already have parks and roads named after former mayors and also after families like the Oliveiras, Torres, Gonzalez, etc.
But they pale in comparison to the super-duper sewage treatment plant.
For example, the Robindale upgrade cost PUB $32.3-million to design and build and allowed for expanding treatment capacity from 10 million gallons per day. The plans for the new plant far exceeds the $32.3 million price tag that was paid for the Robindale upgrades.
Funded in part by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this $32-million renovation and expansion project will cover the city’s north service area to ensure high-quality effluent water through 2025. The wastewater system includes gravity wastewater collection lines, 163 pumping stations plus the two treatment plants. The wastewater system provided service to approximately 47,000 customers and accounts for approximately 13 percent of the BPUB’s total operating revenues annually.
"We thought of naming it after Eddie's son, State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, who some wags have taken to calling Eddie the Turd, but we understand that the Lucios have been playing reluctant to have the honor and privilege of having their name connected to the new plant," said a PUB source. "So if they keep playing hard to get we might have to look for someone else who is worthy of the honor."
It's hard to imagine what other facilities can be named after the Lucios. They already have schools, roads, multi-service centers and health clinics named after their last name. And who can forget the infamous Bridge to Nowhere that cost taxpayers $21 million and which Sen. Eddie Jr. steered towards Dannebaum Engineering and had the commissioners can Brown and Root. After that episode where everything went to, ahem, hell, the sewer treatment plan would seem a natural fit.
Lucio III is following in his daddy's slime trail. We understand that he is now allied with OP 10.33 messianic millionaire Mike Hernandez in his quest to take over various boards and commissions to lift the area out of poverty. Lucio III is, appropriately, a "consultant" Money Man Mike. He and gofer Ruben O'Bell facilitated a meeting in Eddie's office so the new county judge elect-Eddie Treviño could rub elbows with Gov. Greg Abbott. Hernandez was also present at the meeting.
"Think about it, every time you sit on the throne you can thank the Lucios for providing a one-stop center to do your business and handle your stuff," said a city observer at the Palm Lounge. "And besides, you know the Lucios will probably contribute to the plant's capacity because everyone knows they're full of it."