Congressman Gonzalez Announces $43 Million for City of Kenedy and Karnes County Water Treatment Plant

Press Release

Today, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced $43,040,879 for the City of Kenedy's water treatment plant, which has failed the city and Karnes County four times during four disaster events. Residents, evacuees, and businesses have been forced to go without water for periods of time and to boil their water in direct relation to natural disaster storm events.

"I'm proud to support this massive infrastructure project for the City of Kenedy and congratulate them on their award," said Congressman Gonzalez. "This is a much needed infusion of funds that will provide critical upgrades and provide the citizens of Kenedy with a consistent source of fresh water."

Because of our proximity to the gulf coast, we have always been at risk of catastrophic failure of our water and wastewater systems in the event that we would take a direct strike from a major hurricane," said Mayor Joe Baker, City of Kenedy. "This grant funding will allow us to make water and wastewater system improvements that will put the city in a far better position to sustain the impact of such a catastrophic storm. This grant will benefit the people of Kenedy for generations to come and we are all deeply grateful to Commissioner George P. Bush and everyone at the Texas General Land Office who selected Kenedy as the recipient of this very generous grant funding.

The project includes the following:

Build new system on a different power grid than the City of Kenedy, which will enable the wells to continue to produce and pump water.
Install generators to provide a back-up power source to pump water that currently does not exist.
Install a new strategically placed 1 M to 2 M gallon elevated storage tank that will provide enough reserve water to handle a single day of 100% demand in the event of a power outage.
Install a new water transmission line.

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