The purpose of the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project is to provide additional surface water supplies to end users that utilize water from Lake Houston. Additional surface water supplies will be transferred from the Trinity River to Lake Houston via the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project to meet the increased demand for surface water. There are currently no conveyance facilities to provide raw Trinity River water to the Northeast Water Purification Plant, which treats water from Lake Houston. The Northeast Water Purification Plant is vital in providing treated surface water to City of Houston customers and previous studies have shown that Lake Houston and Northeast Water Purification Plant cannot meet future demands at their current capacity. Transfer of additional raw water supplies to Lake Houston and future expansion of treatment capacity at the Northeast Water Purification Plant is required to allow for the mandatory conversion from groundwater to surface water. The Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project will provide the additional raw water resources necessary to satisfy these demands. The City of Houston, Texas holds permits to divert raw water at a maximum rate of 775 cubic feet per second (approximately 500 million gallons per day) from the Capers Ridge site to Lake Houston.
The Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project includes the Capers Ridge Pump Station located on the Trinity River in Liberty County, 3 miles of dual 96 inch diameter pipelines, and 23.5 miles of earthen canal system. The pump station will be located on the Trinity River. The pipeline will extend west southwest approximately 3 miles along a geological ridge (Capers Ridge). The pipeline will then outfall into the sedimentation basin at the start of the canal. The canal will outfall into the lower reaches of Luce Bayou, which flows into the northeastern corner of Lake Houston.
Stiver Engineering was retained by the contractor to provide construction engineering through a cofferdam design for the construction of the Capers Ridge Pump Station. Stiver Engineering also provided excavation plans for the installation of the proposed dual 96 inch diameter outlet piping.