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Recommendations made for North Side water tank
following special City meeting |
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July 23, 2014 |
The Bonners Ferry City Council conducted a
special public meeting Tuesday evening, July 22,
to address ongoing concerns regarding the North
Side water tank. Also in attendance at the
meeting were representatives from the Idaho
Department of Environmental Quality, and
representatives from Welch Comer & Associates,
Inc., an engineering firm consulting with the
city on plans for the troubled tank.
In spite of measures the City has taken since
the problem was documented back in 2009, the
tank has continued to have problems with entry
of mice and "vermin" into the water tank,
putting the water inside at risk of
contamination. Periodic testing of samples from
the tank have consistently shown no coliform
bacteria to be present, and also adequate levels
of chlorination. At last night's meeting,
however, DEQ Drinking Water Analyst Suzanne
Scheidt pointed out that some dangerous
organisms, such as viruses, are not easily
detected by laboratory testing, and could still
be present in the water.
Ms. Scheidt suggested that until the problem is
fully solved, it would be prudent the public be
made aware that in order to completely eliminate
the risk of illness, bottled or boiled water
should be consumed, especially by infants and
elderly who are especially susceptible.
At the time of this writing, the city has
prepared such a notification, and a copy of that
letter is included in another story on the
NewsBF website.
According to City Administrator Stephen Boorman,
the city has continued to work on the problem of
animal entry into the tank, and most recently
has identified vent areas that might possibly be
entry points. Those have had new screens placed.
Also, brush around the tank has once again been
cut back.
Necia Maiani with Welch Comer & Associates, Inc.
presented information on two possible long term
remedies for the situation. The first involves
constructing a new lid on the existing tank.
This option would be the fastest and the least
expensive, but does present some problems as the
tank, installed back in 1922, possibly would not
be able to structurally support the weight of
the proposed concrete lid. The lid could
potentially be mounted on footings separate from
but surrounding the tank, but there is concern
that even those footings might put excessive
pressure on the tank walls.
The second option would be to perform a complete
analysis on the state of the tank and, if
necessary, build a new tank in accordance with
current regulations. Doing this analysis would
require that the tank be emptied, and would
introduce greater cost to the City. Domestic use
of the water would not be affected by emptying
the tank, but it would affect water use for
firefighting if the need arose. However, the
whole process of emptying the tank, inspecting
it, and refilling it would only take two to
three days.
Estimates are that if only a new lid was needed,
the cost would be approximately $100,000. If a
completely new tank is needed the cost would be
roughly $225,000.
The City Council determined to proceed with a
full inspection of the tank, and, using the
information resulting from that inspection, make
their final determination on the course they
would pursue as the ultimate solution to the
problems of the tank.
It is anticipated the inspection process will
begin in early August. Once all data from the
inspection are available and proposals for
remediation prepared, everything will be
submitted to the DEQ for approval. The DEQ
representatives at the meeting indicated their
office would expedite their review of all
submitted plans and proposals, so the project
could move forward as soon as possible. |
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