Water treatment and wells were the main items of new business for the Soldotna city council Wednesday night. The council signed off on an additional $9,000 for a study that will examine some operations at the wastewater treatment plant. The city is updating a nearly 20 year old report about discharge alternatives and source water. Total cost of that project is now $44,000.
The bigger ticket item was $125,000 for a new generator at one of the city’s wells. Public Works Director Kyle Kornelis explains.
“This has been an identified need for some years now. It’s in our master plan as one of our top water sector capital project needs. It was scheduled in our five year capital plan to be done in FY20, which is this July. We’ve recently had additional operational issues with that standby generator, and rather than invest in some more parts and pieces right now, we decided it would be in the best interest to appropriate funds and get the ball rolling right now. Well C and C2 are the wellheads near SoHi.
They’re our two highest volume producing wells for our (water) distribution system and are critical to our utility.”
The generators serve as backup in case of a power outage, so water can keep flowing. Kornelis says there are other redundancies in the system, too.
“We have four wells that are in current operation. We have other wells that aren’t typically used. We have one well on the other side of the bridge, that would provide fresh water in case the bridge were compromised. Then we have three wells on this side. They operate differently. With the exception of C1 and C2, they’re in different aquifers, or different locations. We also have two standby reservoirs...we do have a pretty good idea of the operational impacts if wells were not functioning.”
The council voted unanimously in support.
