Rates could go 20-30 percent higher to replace Centralia plant
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
With the city’s Centralia Street Water Treatment Facility on the verge of obsolescence, Elkhorn officials recently learned the details of what it will take to replace the plant and how much it will likely cost local water customers.
The bottom line? The project will take until September 2015 to complete and water users will be faced with a maximum rate hike of 20-30 percent phased in incrementally over a period of years.
City Administrator Sam Tapson suggested the city consider taking advantage of simplified water rate increases as allowed by the state in preparation for the project. That approach would spread the rate hike out over several years to prevent a large one-year spike.
Doug Snyder of Baxter & Woodman Consulting Engineers recently provided the City Council with an insight to the future of the Centralia Street Water Treatment Facility.
Crews began drilling two new wells north of the city in July as part of the estimated $7-$10 million project to replace the facility. The current facility is more than 100 years old and the project has been in the capital improvement plan for several years.
Snyder, a consulting engineer, said the existing facility is costing the city at least $80,000 more each year to operate and maintain than it does to maintain the Lakeland facility.
In addition, Snyder said, a failure of filtration or softening vessels at the facility would likely result in a repair cost exceeding $500,000.
“Those vessels are crunched in a building down there with a maze of piping around them,” he said.
Snyder said removing the vessels would require new openings in the building and equipment going in would need to be specially designed to meet the space requirement, with a minimum of 16-weeks before the part would even arrive.
“In fairness, that’s a worst case scenario,” Tapson said.
“Not to overstate it, but its condition is marginal and no one can really predict its future.”
In the event the filtration fails, Snyder said he would have to shut down half the plant. Providing the city moves forward with the replacement facility, he said they could leave that half offline.
In addition, Snyder said as long as the city can soften the water, it could continue to put it into the system, though it may be tinged with red and result in some complaints.
According to Snyder the city currently has four active wells and two treatment facilities. Snyder said the equipment and buildings associated with Centralia Street facility are past their service life and becoming increasingly more expensive and difficult to maintain.
He said in order to meet the water supply needs of Elkhorn customers, the city needs to maintain half the capacity of the facility until the replacement plant is operational.
Snyder said if the city were to let this go beyond 2016, summertime demands would exceed the capacity and the city would have to either maintain full capacity or start putting water restrictions in place.
Currently, the city is nearing completion on the two new wells, according to Snyder. As of Nov. 18, one had been pump tested and sampled, and the other was expected to be tested and sample over the course of last week, with results coming in the next month.
According to Snyder, in regards to the design phase of the new facility, as soon as the test results come back, he can begin to get approvals from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Slightly larger, the new facility will be expandable to include an additional well, future elevated in-ground storage, and additional water treatment equipment.
Based upon his schedule, Snyder said his firm intends to have conceptual plans into the DNR in mid-December for its review and begin bidding the project in March and April with financing closing for a state Safe Drinking Water Loan, which the city was approved for, by June 30.
From there, Snyder said construction would start roughly in July, following the loan closing, with the project being completed and brought online in approximately September 2015.
In regards to the city’s need to take action on the new facility, Snyder said the city operates its water system under a DNR permit which requires the city maintains system pressure, meets its customers supply needs with the largest unit out of service, and must provide water in compliance with maximum contaminant levels under Wisconsin administrative code.
Failure to meet these requirements, according to Snyder, would result in a notice of violation and a consent order, forcing the city meet those requirements.
Snyder said a maximum fine of $1,000 per day is a possibility, though that would be spelled out in a consent order.
According to Snyder, the DNR has approved the project enough to obtain the Safe Drinking Water Loan, but won’t look at the designs until water quality and pumping data comes back.
