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How Tarrant Regional Water District Responded to the Texas Winter Storm
An air/vacuum release valve on TRWD’s system that froze and broke during the storm.
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arrant Regional Water District (TRWD) supplies raw water to more than 2 million people in and around the city of Fort Worth and manages the federal floodway that runs through the city. Like all critical utilities in Texas, TRWD put extraordinary efforts into continuing to provide its essential services during the winter storm of February 13–17, 2021. In this interview, TRWD Director of Operations Darrell Beason and TRWD Water Resource Engineering Director Rachel Ickert tell Municipal Water Leader about their preparations for the storm, the response to it in real time, and the lessons TRWD will be taking forward to future emergency events. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions. Rachel Ickert: I joined the district in 2014 as a full-time employee. I worked for Freese & Nichols before that and had worked on projects for TRWD for 11 years, meaning that I’ve been working with the district since 2003. I’m a licensed professional civil engineer and have worked in water supply, design, and planning and in flood control. My group at TRWD oversees our flood modeling and monitoring efforts; water supply management and planning, both long term and shorter term; energy management; and geospatial services, which includes GIS and survey services.
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Fort Worth operations manager, western division operations assistant director, and western division operations director, eventually reaching my current position, director of operations. About 8 years ago, we combined the two operational divisions. Taking advantage of TRWD’s tuition reimbursement program, I went back to college and graduated in 2011 with a degree in management. I like to say that I was on the 23‑year degree plan. My current group, the operations department, covers pipeline operations and maintenance; floodway operations and maintenance, including all the maintenance on the on the Trinity River floodway through Fort Worth; reservoirs operation and maintenance; law enforcement; our newly formed emergency management department; and fleet maintenance and management. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about TRWD’s services and infrastructure. Darrell Beason: TRWD has been around for almost 100 years. Our two primary responsibilities are supplying raw water to municipal customers who treat and distribute it to more than 2 million people and managing the 28‑mile federal floodway that runs through Fort Worth. We have a recreation mission as well, which covers the recreation around the floodway, lakes, and parks. We serve 11 counties centered around Tarrant County. About 80 percent of the water that we supply to Fort Worth is pumped from reservoirs in East Texas. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your experience of the February storm. municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRWD.
Darrell Beason: I started at TRWD in 1994, at which point it was known as the Tarrant County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1. I started in the carpentry shop, which was similar to what we call now facilities maintenance. Back then we actually did things like building cabinets. I started at the bottom and worked my way through to the positions of construction coordinator,
The floor of one of TRWD’s transmission pump stations.
