Distribution System Upgrade

45 year old system has reached the end of its life cycle

Nov 28, 2018 2408 Views FacebookTwitterLinkedInGoogle Plus

The plan to rebuild and upgrade existing water infrastructure is still in the initial phases of development as of 12/6/18. This process has been very slow due to the amount of "paper shuffling" involved. As the planning process becomes finalized, more specific details will be shared on the website. In the meantime, refer to this link /Portals/russell3/documents/minutes/2017%20annual%20meeting_initial%20project%20planning.pdf to understand the historical and current issues of the district, general scope of the project and timelines that were presented during the annual March 2018 meeting held at the Fossil Creek Inn Convention room Russell, KS. 

During the summer of 2018, another issue that was brought forward for discussion and consideration was including the town of Susank and Odin into the project plans. The "PER" addresses this addition. Susank currently purchases water from RWD #3 at a wholesale price but the water distribution system in Susank is old and costly to maintain for Susank due to cast iron main lines that were installed in the 1950s. 

The residents of Odin rely on private water wells. During the summer of 2018, initial discussions and residential survey feedback determined that the residents of Odin were interested in being supplied with a PWS vs relying on private water wells.

The general scope of the project includes the following:
1: Replace all PVC pipe ranging from 3inch to 6 inch
2: Dismantle all current standpipes and construct 1 new standpipe and 1 new helio-spherical water tower. This will increase the water holding capacity of the RWD and mitigate current high demand issues that we face during the summer months. The current standpipes are costly to maintain and upgrade to OSHA and environmental standards. The standpipes are also prone to freeze/freeze damage in the winter months.
3: Integrate the latest technology in smart meters utlizing AMI technologies to read water meters using existing cellular networks and ultrasonic meters to meter customer water use. Customers will be billed for water and the customer will no longer be required to read meters.
4. Consolidate two booster stations into one booster station with the addition of another pump and backup power generation.
5: Address areas that have low volume complaints. Pipe upsize for those areas.
6: Address areas of high pressure. Installation of pressure reducing valves.
7: Incorporate targeted zone meters to facilitate leak detection. This is currently being utilized in specific areas of our RWD and it works well.
8: Addition of Odin and Susank to the RWD along with a few additional customers within the boundaries of the current RWD.

Stay tuned to this page for updates on the project. 
As of 1/2/19...........Tentative timeline for "knowing something new" as I like to call it should occur by March 2019. We are still in "paper shuffle mode".........currently waiting on the results from an Environmental Review (ER). Once the ER is complete, then the ER along with the PER (Preliminary Engineering Report) will be submitted to USDA Rural Development. 

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