In 1926, CP&L built and operated a water treatment plant for the citizens of McAllen. In just 2 years, McAllen almost doubled in size and so did that water plant. By 1945, McAllen had grown so much so that it was time to own a plant of its very own. In 1959, McAllen Public Utility built it's first new water treatment plant. With a daily filtering capacity of 6 million gallons a day it was almost twice the size of the existing plant. This plant would be expanded 2 times, each time adding more. The plant could increase its size by just changing the materials in the filter. This allowed for an increase in production without the cost of building. After all additions were made and the need to supply the south side of town had been met, it was time to expand again. The Northwest Water Plant, constructed in 2004, added an additional 8 Million gallon capacity. Like the south plant, this plant was constructed for addition as the north side of town grows and the demand increases. The 3 McAllen Water Treatment Plants must now meet a minimum daily production capacity of 44.5 Million gallons of water. With the addition of a new 1.4MGD Groundwater well current system capacities are 59.6 Million gallons of treated water per day and growing.