McAllen’s $204M water investment expects to seek construction bids in 2027

The city of McAllen’s big $204 million investment to diversify its drinking water portfolio from reliance on the Rio Grande River with a new brackish water desalination plant is moving forward with construction bids expected in early 2027. 

“The river is not as reliable as it used to be,” Mark Vega, general manager of McAllen Public Utilities previously told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. “There’s plenty of groundwater, but it’s salty, so you have to treat that, and that’s a more expensive process than surface water treatment.” 

On Sept. 14 McAllen water utility leaders and independent consultants also told city leaders that the test wells discovered more available water underground than previously estimated over a 170-acre site. 

“We had four test wells, the original assumption was to drill four test wells in order to determine the quality and volume of water that we could get from the groundwater,” said Sergio Espinoza, project manager for the Rio Grande Valley for Carollo Engineers. “After drilling at the site it was determined by the hydrogeologist that we can actually get more water.”