BATTLE MOUNTAIN - No problems have been reported with the Battle Mountain arsenic mitigation system since it went back online Sept. 8 after the Sept. 7 completion of the dedicated draw line, said Steve Brigman, of Shaw Engineering, who is overseeing the project along with Public Works Foreman Jake Edgar.
There have been no complaints of sand or oxygen in the water, said Brigman. All the odds and ends of the construction were wrapped up Sept. 15 and the looping project is completely finished.
Commissioners in March approved a looping pipeline to provide a secondary main line to supply customers in case the main line needs to be shut off. The looping starts at the new water line near the RC field and ends at the end of the pavement on Sheep Creek Road.
The Bureau of Land Management cleared the looping project to proceed on July 7. It was done by Legacy Construction.
Residents will see no water pressure increase until four segments of the city pipelines are replaced probably in the spring, said Brigman. In 2006, there was around 36,000 feet of city pipes replaced. Shaw Engineering is currently preparing construction plans for the four segments that need to be replaced, said Brigman.
The whole water arsenic mitigation system was up and running smoothly and was only shut off so the dedicated draw line could be installed, said Brigman. Construction of the draw line was started by Legacy Construction on Aug. 22.
Although there have been no further sand issues since the initial complaints when the system first went online at the beginning of July, the dedicated draw line is ensuring that all of the water first goes to the water tanks before it reaches customers and this is serving as a sand filter, explained Brigman.
There was a slight amount of oxygen in the water but the draw line is also helping to mitigate that since sending all of the water to the tanks first is adding more time to allow for the air to bubble out of the water, said Brigman.
Lander County commissioners approved the funding for the dedicated draw line at their Aug. 11 meeting. The cost was approximately $54,600 and the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to fund 75 percent.
There was one line that connected from the wells to the water tanks and it was a two-way water line which means water ran both ways in the one pipeline which is common for systems such as this one, explained Brigman.
Since there was funding left over from the project which came in under budget, Edgar, Brigman and commissioners discussed July 28 the possibility of adding the dedicated draw line to and from the wells and the tanks. With the completion of the dedicated draw line, the two lines have now each become one-way lines.
The system initially went online on July 7 and was running well at first, but soon after, several residents in the Echo Bay neighborhood experienced sand and oxygen in their water. The system was turned off July 15 and underwent extensive flushing and testing.
Although no definite source of sand was pinpointed, Brigman said he suspects the sand that customers had initially seen came from the wells being drawn down to 400 feet or some sand in the existing water system. The draw down in the wells has now been adjusted to around 300 to 350 feet, said Brigman.
The simulation test was completed July 5 and all systems were working well. The new system includes two water tanks, two wells and a transmission pipeline.
With the nationwide federal standards for limits of arsenic in drinking water lowered in 2006 from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb, Battle Mountain's new wells came in at four ppb.
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