Paonia okays water study
The Town of Paonia has approved WestWater Engineering completing a $22,000 preliminary engineering report on how to have two lower springs feed the upper two million gallon system.
Recent water rate increases were in anticipation of the State of Colorado requiring upgrades and the need for additional water capacity.
WestWater Engineering submitted a revised proposal to complete the preliminary engineering report to meet Rural Development requirements in late April.
According to WestWater, the town wants to have a "new treatment process and additional finished water storage improvements at the upper water treatment plant (Lamborn Plant), along with extension of the Upper Paonia Pipeline to the Lamborn plant."
The Town of Paonia believes the state may reclassify the springs water supply as ground water under the influence of surface water, which would require meeting new standards by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. The current water treatment system does not meet those standards.
WestWater stated the town wants "additional finished water storage and the ability to divert the Old Original Town Spring and the Upper Reynolds Creek Spring to the Lamborn Plant." This will provide added flexibility in operations and redundancy in the water system.
What that would entail is a new dual train membrane filtration treatment plant to replace the current one, conversion from gas chlorine to liquid hypochlorite disinfection, expansion of the existing metal building for the new membrane filters and accessory skids, a new two million gallon finished water storage facility to increase storage capacity to four million gallons, abandonment of the existing backwash storage tank, reconfiguration of the backwash pond to expand the treatment building and an interconnecting pipeline with manual flow controls between the five-inch Upper Paonia Pipeline to the lower water treatment plant and the Lamborn Plant as a second influent water supply.
The $22,000 will cover labor and expenses to prepare the report. WestWater Engineering estimates a draft report will take seven to eight weeks to complete.
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