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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1975 09-09 Independent well system shunned by city consultant REVIEW Independent well system shunned ed • by city consultant by Scott Carlson begun the development of a master meter An independent system of scattered wholesale system for the city. The city municipal wells is not advisable for the currently buys water from St.Paul Water city of Maplewood, a consultant from Department on a retail basis. Kirkham-Michael Associates told the city A final report from Kirkham-Michael, council last Thursday night. with cost estimates for recommended Instead it appears more advantageous improvements and a prioritization of for Maplewood to continue with the St. projects, is expected within one month. Paul water system and undertake several "If you go to a "tree" (independent water improvement projects to meet the scattered well) system sometime down water demands of Maplewood citizens the road it may cause you problems," and businesses, Gary Sindelar said. Sindelar told the council. Those comments were part of Kirkham- Under the Safe Drinking Act, the first Michael's advice in an interim water law ever passed to regulate water quality report. inthe Unite , "if you don't meet The Kirkham-Michael firm was asked the sta dards youtescould be taken to court for updated reports by the council after it, and sued," Sindelar said. in April, rejected $10.4 million in water In 18 months the laws will be enforced improvement projects,which would have and just how stringent secondary guidelines will be remains to be seen at this time, Sindelar indicated. Minimum standards will be established not only for nitrates and fulurides but pesticides and bacterial counts, he said. Should any community fail to meet the standards, it would have to publish the deficiencies in local newspapers and publicize them on the TV and radio, Sindelar added. Sindelar indicated that should Maplewood not meet standards under a "tree system"(although he had no reason that the city could not meet standards) it would cost a lot of money to provide treatment. In explaining the technical concept of a `tree system," the interim report states, "In a tree system, wells are scattered throughout the community and discharged directly into the water (Continued on Page 10) Well system.. . . (Continued from Page 1) distribution system.Each well supplies a sub-area of the community. Groups of wells supplying areas of the community at like elevations are associated with one or more elevated storage tanks to provide fire equalization and fire flow storage. "No central treatment,quality control or quality monitoring capability is provided in a tree system." If the city decided to establish a"tree" system the 3M Company would have to be automatically excluded since it depends on treated water,Sindelar said. In addition a tree system could be implemented in only certain areas,Sin- delar said. Those areas include that portion of Maplewood south of the 3M center, which presently populated, and the heaviest populated area bounded by Keller Lake on the west, County rd. D on the north,White Bear ave.on the east and Larpenteur ave.on the south. But other areas of the city woulde better handled economically bymaking minor improvements, which in most cases would include either installation of bigger water mains, construction of booster pumps or,in a couple of cases, erection of elevated storage tanks, the consultants said. Sindelar,in his report,said that: —THE HAZEL PARK pumping station, which provides water to all of Maplewood except the area west of Phalen and Keller Lakes,is inefficient. Under its present condition it requires an increasing pumping capacity. The area it serves is hounded by Keller Lake on the wes`White Be nave.on Q the he east and County high water demands from and Mtheaplewood Mall shopping dense residential development. area Adequate water pressures resscsin thecreatthe ��id be achieved by ity re the Hazel amount of pumping pc Park station and adding distribution lines between the Hazel Park station and Maplewood. The improvements, i construct part, d woulfwd require Maplewood to o major water main lines between Lar- penteur and Frost ayes. —EVEN WITH SUBSTANTIAL im- provements to both the StPult and :Maplewood distribution systems ap- pears that "it will be essential for Maplewood to construct an elevated storage tank in an area bounded by Larpenteur ave., County rd. D, Keller Lake and White Bear ave-" —A LONG RANGE solution for providing adequate water pressure to new residences north of the o mp�n complex can be accomplished ne^ting up to the new Beebe rd.pumping station,now under construction,north of Larpenteur ave. —'T APPEARS any future 3Company by im- provements needed by Paul Water can be provided y he Department. q Q o !qr., -_THE SPARSELY developed area Fouth of 3M can continue to be served by St. Paul and the Hazel Parkpimmping g station provided that facilities are provided.