For the week of April 16 - 22, 2003

Bellevue seeks solution to water-system crisis

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

A Boise-based engineer told Bellevue City Council members last week that the city is likely losing approximately 250,000 gallons of water per day through leaks in the city’s aging water-delivery system.

Steven Yearsley, an engineer for Forsgren and Associates, the company that provides engineering services to Bellevue, told city officials Thursday, April 10, that he believes the city is losing the huge quantities of water through major leaks in the joints of the city’s water pipes, the majority of which are 60 years old.

Yearsley proposed several courses of action to address the problem, the crux of which is to conduct a "facility planning study" to determine where the infrastructure problems are and how the city should fix them.

Upon hearing the news, Councilwoman Tammy Schofield said she foresees the process to fund and complete the study could last more than a year, and wants the city to act on the problem much more quickly. "I just think that it is ungodly to lose that much, and then multiply it over another year," she said. "Our main natural resource is water … I think that is poor management … I just don’t want to sit back."

Schofield asked Yearsley for a recommendation on what the city could do to address the major leaks in a timely fashion.

However, Yearsley said it would be very difficult for the city to locate the most problematic leaks and attempt to fix them immediately. He noted that he believes the entire city system needs to be surveyed and assessed.

"It’s very hard to pinpoint a major leak (by itself)," he said.

Councilman Wayne Douthit said he is not convinced the engineer’s information was correct. "Are you sure that it’s leaks?" he asked, noting that he recalls the city testing the water lines in the 1980s and finding them to be in relatively good condition.

Douthit said he believes that if such large quantities of water are being lost every day, some obvious signs would be visible at ground level.

Yearsley said he does not doubt that the city system is capable of losing 250,000 gallons each day. He said the system includes five miles of aged lines, with joints located in 20-foot intervals. He suggested that some joints could be leaking one or two gallons of water per minute.

"I think it’s more than likely it is leaks," he said.

Yearsley said the loss was essentially calculated by measuring the quantity of water that is delivered into the system out of the city’s primary water-storage tank against the amount of wastewater that is piped into the city’s sewer treatment facility.

He said that figures indicated that out of approximately 450,000 to 500,000 gallons of water delivered in a typical day, about 50 percent does not make it to the wastewater treatment facility. On average, 90 percent of the water sent out should eventually make it to the sewer facility, particularly in winter when residents are not irrigating their lawns and gardens, he said.

Overall, studies indicated that up to 250,000 gallons of potable water is being lost on an average day, he said.

Schofield did not doubt Yearsley’s figures, noting that she believes there are leaks "throughout the city."

In addition, Yearsley said the city sewer treatment plant is running out of capacity and is discharging elevated levels of nitrogen into the earth.

Yearsley recommended that the city seek funding to improve the sewer system, and also apply to the state for a permit to discharge treated effluent into the Big Wood River.

Councilman Jon Wilkes opposed the idea. "The plant is designed not to put discharge into the Big Wood River," he said. "Environmentally, it seems like we’re turning face here."

Yearsley ultimately recommended that the city conduct the facility planning study to best determine how to upgrade the water and sewer systems.

 

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