Wastewater Treatment

GCA is authorized by its enabling act  to build, acquire, own and operate waste treatment facilities and related appurtenances and currently provides both industrial and municipal wastewater treatment services in Texas.  GCA has the unique ability among publicly owned treatment works to provide industrial wastewater treatment without dischargers meeting applicable categorical pretreatment standards under specific circumstances.

GCA’s wastewater treatment facilities make use of microorganisms to clean wastewater then remove the microorganisms before the treated water is released.  The microbes are then reused to clean up additional wastewater.  This process is referred to as Activated Sludge.  Each of the facilities use unique configurations of the Activated Sludge process to optimize the treatment of the specific wastestreams received at that facility.

GCA owns and operates four regional industrial wastewater treatment facilities that process liquid wastes from more than 80 industrial plants (largely petrochemical in nature). These GCA facilities are the Washburn Tunnel Facility located on the Houston Ship Channel, the Bayport Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facility  located in the Bayport Industrial District in Pasadena, Texas, the 40–Acre Facility in Texas City and the Odessa Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility  in Odessa, Texas.

The Authority also owns and/or operates municipal wastewater treatment facilities, including the Blackhawk Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility  located in Friendswood, Texas.  Blackhawk provides tertiary treatment with ultra-violet light disinfection as part of the treatment process.