By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspndent
Decisions and more decisions about culinary water improvements will need to be addressed by the city council following a draft report presented by Sunrise Engineering on Tuesday.
Jeff and Robert Worley, representing Sunrise Engineering, Inc., were present to present the draft.
The recommended improvements coming from the study first suggested that two studies be done before decisions were made. One of those would be an irrigation system feasibility study and the other would be a spring line replacement analysis.
"We are recommending several projects in phases," said Worley.
They were also recommending that the base rate water fee be raised.
Phase I base rate with impact fees would be $18 and without impact fees would be $21.
"The MAGI (Median Adjusted Gross Income) is 1.75 percent per month," said Worley.
In order to qualify for any type of assistance in building the needed additions to the infrastructure, the city would need to show that they were doing their part to raise the funds from users.
"Our current base rate is $7.50 per month," said Randy McKnight, city administrator.
Worley stressed that all the figures being used were just draft numbers and would, in all likelihood, be changed as the study proceeded to its final draft. Phase I would require the construction of a 2 million gallon storage tank and a new well.
Phase II would require new distributions lines, fire hydrants and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems.
Phase III would require a new storage tank and would extend distribution lines to the airport and Phase IV would require a spring line project.
He said that led to the difficult recommendation that a water financing plan would require that water rates be increased which was never popular with consumers or council members.
The location recommended for the new storage capacity tank would be away from the east section of the community. The east site where the other two water storage sites are located would not be good.
"We propose that the new water storage tank be on the South End of the water system above the south interchange of the freeway. No exact location has been chosen, however," said Albretcht.
A well would need to be drilled to supply the tank, said Worley.
"That kind of defeats our goal of drinking spring water," said Mark Jones, mayor. "We have also been trying to keep rates down. In fact, we have been so good at holding rates down that it has now come back to bite us."
And what would happen if a secondary water irrigation delivery system was developed for the entire community? asked Greg Rowley, council member.
As far as summertime Peak Day capacity, said Worley, about half of water use, or up to two-thirds, was used for outside watering. If the water for the outside needs was not taken from the culinary tank it would help.
There are grants to help with installation of irrigation systems that are not available for storage capacity development, he said.
CUP was more willing to support activities that improved conservation even though, physically drop for drop, the amount of water had not changed.
Worley said they, the engineers, had used a five-point system analysis and had considered capacity vs. requirements as far as water rights, source, storage, distribution system and treatment were concerned. They then identified and recommended improvements for the system.
"The term 'water rights' is a bit confusing," said Worley. "The common way to talk about water rights is in acre-feet."
The required water rights for the city presently are 3,621 acre-feet, in 20 years the city would need 5,748 acre-feet and in 40 years they would need 8,431 acre-feet.
"All of the city's water rights are limited by flow and cfs," he said.
CFS is another measurement of water flow equivalent to one cubic foot of water passing a given point for an entire second. One KCFS equals a 1,000 CFS.
In the summer months, said Worley, the flow needed is 9,876 gpm (gallons per minute) or 22 cfs. The summer volume is 8,388 acre-feet.
Census data analysis indicated that from 1970 to 1980 there was 1.98 percent growth, from 1980 to 1990 there was only a 0.68 percent population growth, from 1990 to 2000 there was a growth rate of 3.02 percent, and from 2000 to 2010 there was 2.19 percent growth.
The recommended growth rate for residential is 2.73 percent, commercial 2 percent and industrial 5 percent (which brings two new users in 20 years).
"The city has a total water right of about 17,000 acre-feet but all of those rights have a limitation of flow," he said.
Required water source is now 3,940 gpm and, in the future will be 7,340 gpm.
Marsh Springs has 600 gpm available, Bradley Springs has 1,300 gpm available, the Equipment Shed Well has 2,400 gpm available, and Jones Well has zero gpm available for a total source capacity of 4,300 gpm.
Worley said that more water source need would need to be developed.
Don Ball, resident, asked if, since it could be presumed that with future growth many of the cultivated areas would become housing developments, water needs would then decline and that would be of benefit to the city.
The question was not simple to answer, said Worley, since it would decrease the total consumption of water from sources. However, most of the cultivated areas were out of the city, and development of homes and having those homes inside city limits would put increased need for storage onto the city.
Worley said that currently the city needed to store 3,428,983 gallons. What they were able to store was 2 million gallons in the blue tank and 600,000 gallons in the silver tank for a total of 2,600,000 gallons. Future use would require 6,258,792 gallons.
"That would lead us to believe that we need more storage capacity," said Jones.
That was true, said Worley.
"The current chlorination facility is in need of replacement," he said. "Required water distribution for Nephi would require that you maintain 20 psi (pounds per square inch) in the system with Peak Day Flow and fire flow."
A current Peak Day requires 3,940 gpm and a future (in 20 years) Peak Day will require 7,340 gpm. Fire flow needs are for 1,500 to 3,000 gpm.
"Fire hydrants are inadequate," said Worley. "The system does not meet requirements. You need one fire hydrant every 500-feet and, in some areas, you do not meet that."
All grant money is, however, said Worley, at least four years away.
"Most communities charge an impact fee," he said. "That would be our suggestion, that you do that."
Most communities base impact fees on the ERC (Equivalent Residential Connection).
