Update 6/30/2025: $54 million grant in 2025 for Cypress Ditch improvements
Bellaire City Council unanimously passed an Ordinance on May 19, 2025, to put an end to Bellaire’s wastewater treatment plant. It is a sad day for the City of Bellaire. Most Council members asked few questions, no one requested another inspection by at least one more engineering firm. The WWTP may remain in operation until sometime in 2027 while the connection to the CoH plant is under construction. You can view the meeting here. Find the agreements, etc., here.
The strategy appears to be directed by Bellaire’s desire to prevent flooding in the next big storm with an agenda to promote rebuilding Cypress Ditch, provide land to convert to detention along Edith St, the south side of Beechnut, and Brays Bayou, and do away with the WWTP. By the time we discover if this anti-flood strategy is successful most of the people promoting it may be gone, but the debt will remain.
As for Cypress Ditch, which begins at Chimney Rock and borders Bellaire, time will tell. I’m no expert on detention areas and how well they work, but I do know that in order to work as promised Cypress Ditch will need to be cleaned and maintained. If past experience is a predictor, good luck with that. Same for these proposed detention areas. No idea of the cost, no idea of the cost of future maintenance
The plan is obvious if you follow Council’s trail of bread crumbs. Hire a new City Manager familiar with the City of Houston (July 2022). Suggest holding back on maintenance and evaluating the condition of the WWTP via the 2024 CIP plan, pg 9 (Aug 2023). Issue evaluation contract for $285K to HDR (Nov 2023).
Buy a $7 million Houston property (using Certificates of Obligation) for Public Works relocation (Oct 2024). Run up the flag for bonds for generic drainage projects – wastewater, water, etc. Once they pass (Nov 2024), override that first 2024 HDR evaluation of $29M (May 2024) of the WWTP costs with a much higher HDR cost of $105M (March 2025).
Land Swap! At the May 19th meeting Council approved the exchange of Ruffino Hills, valued at over $10 million, to Houston in exchange for three (3) City of Houston Tracts (13.15 acres) to be used for future detention areas + Houston’s agreement to treat the City of Bellaire’s wastewater + a payment of $5,140,000 to Houston from the balance of the Ruffino Hills sale/swap.
To complete the agreement Bellaire will have to sell $30 million in bonds. Now what? Between the land swap and the bonds, the cost to the City is close to $40 million, and the loss of the WWTP.
There’s no budget to construct those detention areas. But at least we can get the WWTP out of the way because suddenly, after serving as a valued City facility for 80 years, it’s too expensive.
Back to the WWTP, and the Mayor insisting the City can no longer afford the WWTP. The City’s current debt is about $92 million, with debt service running about $9.5 million annually. Regardless, residents were encouraged to approve another $70 million in bonds last November. But demolishing the WWTP was not on the ballot. Why?
Rebuilding or rehabbing the Bellaire plant would use bond money, but to be clear, $30 million in bonds will be spent, the question is when, to whom, and for what? Residents will pay debt service for those bonds, too, no matter how they are used – a rehabbed plant, a new plant, or connecting to CoH. That $10 million+ from the Ruffino Hills sale would have helped to rehab or rebuild the plant. And there’s another $40 million in bonds planned for Cypress Ditch.
According to the City budget, sewer charges in 2023 generated about $3.4 million in revenue. The wastewater expenses were minimal, about $500K. Could the cost for WWTP personnel for that period exceed a million dollars? If not, there seems to be about a million to two million dollars left over.
Once future payments for sewer service are paid to Houston, a major portion of sewer service will no longer be under Bellaire’s authority. We’ll see a loss of $3 million to $4 million a year in revenue, a loss of financial control, and Bellaire residents will be at the mercy of Houston’s budget needs.
The plan is for Bellaire’s sewage to be pumped via pipeline, under Beechnut and Cypress Ditch, then up to the Houston plant. In a populous area and a supposed area of subsidence.
Will Bellaire residents still pay sewer charges for the maintenance of the wastewater sewer system contained within the City limits? Repair or replacement costs for City sewer lines, lift stations, other issues? Will the $6 a month drainage fee recently added to Bellaire water bills be used for wastewater system expenses?
No one can foresee what may happen, what future costs or issues residents may face if Bellaire moves service to Houston and the Bellaire WWTP is gone. We’re told that would be Houston’s problem. Really? Who do we call? Who is responsible for problems with the new pipeline, Houston or Bellaire? What happens if the Houston plant closes and a pipeline must be built to the Almeda-Sims Plant? In 2020 Bellaire initiated submission of a $65 million dollar grant that included a pipeline to the Almeda-Sims WWTP, 8 to 10 miles from Bellaire, because the Beechnut plant was slated to close.
Finally, how much will a possible total of $170 million of bonded debt cost Bellaire residents, and how will they pay that debt service?
Send comments to your Mayor and members of City Council via our City Clerk, Tracy Dutton, at tdutton@bellairetx.gov
Recent City of Houston water bill for 8000 gallons – $191.40.
Sewer Charges – $105.01
At left, a more recent CoH bill for same home – $148.08
Sewer Charges – $80.76 for 6000 gallons
Bellaire Utility Rates FY2024 City of Houston Rates
CoH Calculator
All Communities served by CoH WWTPs per PIR 12-7-2024
Bunker Hill Village Rates, connected to CoH WWTP
Spring Valley Village Rates, connected to CoH WWTP
Hillshire Village Bi-MonthlyRates, connected to CoH WWTP
Pine Village PUD, connected to CoH WWTP
It’s Official – Say So Long To Bellaire’s Wastewater Treatment Plant
Construction on the new Bellaire High school is complete. The original building was demolished during the week of July 13-17, 2021. 
FEMA imposes requirements for new structures and limits on existing structures in flood zones. Check with Development Services for more information,