Friday, February 17, 2006

Bellevue considers $9.5 million water upgrade

Officials say project would likely be phased over a 10- to 15-year period


By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

Bellevue's aging water system is being used to its full capacity and the city urgently needs to implement a number of fixes to address the problem.

Such was the general consensus of city officials at a Bellevue City Council meeting Thursday, Feb. 9.

During the meeting, City Engineer Steven Yearsley highlighted a number of fixes needed to bring the water system up to date. Yearsley based his recommendations on the preliminary results of an in-depth study of the city's water system he recently conducted.

Based on those recommendations, Yearsley said Bellevue needs to complete $9.5 million in upgrades to bring the city's water system up to date. He recommended the upgrades be spread out over four distinct construction phases.

Bellevue officials will be considering a variety of possible sources to help pay for the upgrades, including government grants, putting the issue of a water bond to a vote of city residents and raising water rates. Another significant source of financing could come from developers who are applying for annexation into the city of Bellevue.

The basic problem with Bellevue's water system comes down to a lack of redundancy, Yearsley said.

Where that lack of redundancy becomes most apparent is with Bellevue's basic fire fighting needs.

While Bellevue is currently able to meet its basic fire-flow requirements—basically the quantity of water in gallons per minute necessary for fire fighting needs—it is only barely able to. "We have the ability to fight the fire," Yearsley said. "But not at the current flow standards put in place by the state."

According to Idaho Department of Environmental Quality rules, municipalities should be able to maintain a 20-pounds-per-square-inch residual pressure in their water system while they're fighting a fire, Yearsley said. "We can't meet the fireflow requirements and still meet the 20-psi residual requirements," he said.

The reasons for the deficiencies in Bellevue's water system are two-fold, Yearsley said. First, at full capacity Bellevue's water sources are only able to provide enough water for the city's current needs and nothing more. In addition, Bellevue's aging water system infrastructure needs updating.

As a part of his study, Yearsley considered the city's three sources of water—the springs in Muldoon Canyon, the Chestnut Street well and the Chantrelle well near the Chantrelle subdivision—as well as the water lines that transport water through town.

Phase 1 of the upgrades would be the costliest, Yearsley said. He said the estimated $4,674,099 cost of Phase 1 would pay for drilling a new well, installing water meters throughout town and placing a number of new 12-inch water transmission lines at various locations. The city is considering drilling the new well directly adjacent to the existing Chestnut Street well, which could then be used as a backup water source, Yearsley said.

Phase 1 could potentially be completed within two or three years, Yearsley said.

During the remaining three phases the city would redevelop the Muldoon Canyon springs to make them more productive, replace additional water lines and provide for the needs of future development.

City Administrator Tom Blanchard said the city is likely looking at an approximate 10- to 15-year timeline to complete the four phases of construction. "The need is not small, $9 million," he said.

Blanchard said while city leaders do realize the urgency of the problem, they haven't made any final decisions on the timeline for implementing the required fixes.

Bellevue's infrastructure hasn't kept pace with the rapid growth the city has experienced, Blanchard said. "I've always said the public infrastructure has to keep pace with private investment."

Unmet fire-flow requirements have the potential to devalue private property, he added. "The community has to invest in themselves," Blanchard said.

Having annexation applicants help the city update its water system will be a requirement for becoming part of the city, he said. "We should expect them to contribute to that."

Still, annexation fees can only be used to solve some of the city's woes, Blanchard said. "It's not fair for them (annexation applicants) to pay everything."




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