As residents have surely noticed, the Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District No. 142 Elevated Storage Tank (EST) bowl raising was completed on August 8th, 2019. It took approximately 5 hours to lift the 500,000 gallon EST bowl roughly 120 feet to the top of the column. By comparison, a typical residential swimming pool is ~12,000 gallons; the Westheimer Lakes POA clubhouse pools are junior Olympic size, about 110,000 gallons. The EST could fill a clubhouse pool almost 5 times, or over 40 average residential pools!
Viewed from each of the neighborhoods that make up FB MUD 142, residents can see the name of their subdivision clearly upon the side of the water tower.
See the below video for more information and to see it being raised:
From an engineering perspective, the tank raising was extremely successful. Scheduling and completing a tank raising can be difficult due to possible inclement weather conditions. The FB MUD 142 EST project is expected to be completed and operational before the end of the year.
An Elevated Storage Tank (EST), also known as a water tower, is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to maintain water system pressure. Elevated Storage Tanks are also able to supply water during power outages because they rely on hydrostatic pressure produced by the elevation of water due to gravity. The EST will ensure long term pressure stability throughout the District and will make sure the Districtā€™s water system continues to be a reliable source.
For a time-lapse video of the raising, see below: