“Water is life” — at least according to text on the city of Cheney’s Consumer Confidence Report for 2015 regarding water quality in the city.
Part of that life these days is not only conserving the precious resource underneath residents’ feet, but also accounting for all of the water in the city’s system. As such, the report stated Cheney has accounted for 88.2 percent of the water it pumps from the ground, something Public Works Director Todd Ableman hopes increases from efforts to locate and repair situations that create those losses.
The city’s goal is water losses of 10 percent or under, Ableman said. Greater than 10 percent, and Cheney must report what type of measures it is taking to combat those losses to the state’s Department of Health.
Ableman said losses stem from a number of factors, ranging from meters out of calibration to leaks in the system. The former doesn’t happen often, he added, because meters on city wells are calibrated regularly and service meters — 2,250 in the city — are changed out before reaching a re-calibration point.
Leaks are a different matter. Because of last year’s imposed water restriction measures, the city identified and repaired 13 separate water leaks, helping it get to the 88.2 percent water accountability.
Ableman hopes repairs this year will get Cheney over the hump and below 10 percent. Work fixing one substantial leak recently wrapped up on First Street between A and Vine streets.
The leak was on a 6-inch main near the former location of Fern Street, which used to run between AMG Auto and the former lumber yard, part of which is now occupied by E-Cigs and Zombie Juice. Ableman said the leak, which was known, was pumping 50 – 70 gallons per minute, 3,000 – 4,200 gallons per hour into the ground.
Because the state Department of Transportation is planning to repave First Street/State Route 904 through Cheney next year, Ableman said it was time to address the issue this year.
At its June 28 meeting, the City Council awarded a $61,785 water boring project to Accelerated Construction to not only fix the leak on the 6-inch main, but also to transfer five existing services off the pipe and onto a newer, 12-inch main running parallel to it.
The 12-inch main was installed in the late 1970s, while the 6-inch line was likely put in years before as commercial development began to expand up the old state highway out of downtown. Removing the services allowed the city to shut down the 6-inch main.
“With this leak, we hope we’ll be under the 10 percent,” Ableman said.
Another leak was discovered in April on First Street between the Cheney Baptist Church and O’Reilly Auto Parts. That involved a previously unknown 2-inch line that was likely installed when the church was the Elegant Egg Restaurant, and leaked over 237,000 gallons before crews repaired the connection in early July.
“Nobody knew about it,” Ableman said. “It was not on any of our maps.”
Being on a city map can be crucial in determining leak locations. Ableman said past utility work sometimes didn’t include an accurate set of drawings, referred to as “as built” in the construction field.
Since 2007, however, the city has identified and marked via GPS all of its infrastructure, using that data to cross reference existing drawings to determine accuracy. Repairing leaks also provides other opportunities.
“When leaks occur, it’s a good opportunity to look underground and assess what’s there, why we may be having certain problems and our best chance to resolve it,” Ableman said.
As for water consumption, Ableman said the city is doing well, thanks not only to the efforts of residents and businesses in following the watering schedule, but also a more normal weather pattern.
“I see a lot more green lawns than I did last year, which is good,” he added.
City of Cheney’s water
consumption January — July
2014 — 372,448,000 gallons
2015 — 392,261,676 gallons
2016 — 360,992,200 gallons
Source: Cheney Public Works Department
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)