Pump costs $1,000 a day for fuel plus $8,000 monthly rent

BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Martin County Water District is spending $1,000 a day for fuel and 8,000 a month on a pump to transfer water from the river to the critically low Curtis Crum Reservoir. Meanwhile, the water district has encountered setbacks in both parts of the $3.5 million raw water intake and water treatment plant project.

Craig Miller of Alliance Water Resources, the Missouri-based management company that operates MCWD, said in a water board meeting Friday that the district had been pumping water from the Tug River to the reservoir for over a week. However, he added the district was not running the rented diesel-fired pump at the river “as much as we would like.”

“When we were running it full bore, it was going through fuel, probably about 800-900 gallons a day,” Miller said. “And we were looking at $1,500 a day fuel bills, so we backed it off a little bit.”

Miller stated the reservoir “still looks low, but it’s not low.” He emphasized water production requirements dropped during the previous two weeks to 1.33 million gallons per day, down from 1.52 million in May.

Board member John Paul Hensley mentioned that a few years ago, “when the reservoir had gotten as low as it is now,” the district used a rental pump at the river and one at the reservoir to feed the plant.

“The reason the reservoir could get even lower now is that back in the fall, we had divers come in and clean up the screens that were stopped up,” Hensley said, referring to three pipes in the reservoir that gravity-feed water to the treatment plant. Only one of those feeds remained below the water level last week  — feed No. 3, which did not function until the divers performed the work.

Raw water intake failure

Discussing the raw water intake project under construction since 2021 by Louisville-based Pace Contracting, Miller reported that the district’s 2 million gallons per day pump and variable speed drive arrived back from the repair shop in March. However, despite multiple attempts, the pump could not push water over Turkey Mountain to the reservoir.

Kentucky Power installed new, upgraded electrical service, including a new pole, but the pump failed again.

Miller said a technician from Bell Engineering recently assessed the VSD, which controls the electrical power supply to the motor in the pump and found “a couple of failures.”

“They’re going to take that back to Bell, and myself and Bell are going to discuss what they’re going to do to correct the problem,” said Miller. “I have asserted to them that the district is not going to be responsible for any more issues with the raw water pumps and VSDs. This was all part of the project that they engineered and part of the project that’s still under construction. The district has been paying for repairs to these pumps. We shouldn’t be held responsible for a situation that wasn’t ready to be put in place.”

Legal counsel representing MCWD also has been in contact with Xylem, the manufacturer that sold the district two new pumps – the 2 MGD and a larger 4 MGD – and corresponding VSDs in 2019. The district installed the 2 MGD pump and VSD in the fall of 2019. It operated with no problem until submerged in Tug River floodwaters Jan. 29, 2021. The pump has not operated properly since.

Xylem also contracted to construct additional components at the raw water intake.

Miller indicated that other stakeholders involved in the raw water pump situation should be held accountable and called for immediate action to address the problems.

“They’ve been made aware of the situation and our feelings on the matter, so hopefully, we’ll start seeing some traction to get that corrected immediately.”

During the meeting, Inez Mayor Ed Daniels questioned the delay in renting a pump, given the critically low state of the reservoir. In response, Miller stated that in addition to the $8,000 monthly rent and $1,000 per day fuel costs, there was the expense of employees traveling to the site and refilling the fuel.

Noting the reservoir looked like a “big mudhole,” Daniels suggested the water board weighs the cost against the potential consequence of running out of water.

Miller acknowledged the district’s obligation to keep the reservoir full.

“But the system was full, no one ran out of water, and we weren’t in danger of running out of water,” said Miller. “Getting a pump here was as simple as making a phone call. So we did it when we knew we didn’t have any other choice.”

The water district lost about 68% of treated water to leaks in May.

Treatment plant setbacks

In addition to reservoir and pump challenges, the water district has encountered setbacks in the water plant improvement project. Miller informed the board in a July 2022 meeting that Pace Contracting had left a 2-inch gap on a skirt inside a newly rehabilitated clarifier. Instead of replacing the defective skirt, Pace attempted to extend it by welding a piece of metal on the front side and filling the center with thick rubber. However, the clarifier presented leaks.

“Instead of one well, they did two wells inside,” Miller stated in July. “I didn’t like the way it was done. I wanted reassurance from the engineering firm that it was going to be just as solid as the rest of the seams around the clarifier.”

During the meeting Friday, Miller said the contractor had continued to work on leaks in the clarifier between the filter and filter drain.

“I don’t really know what happened, but there seems to have been some kind of welding issue where they added the new metal to the concrete,” stated Miller. “Frankly, we’re not going to let them finish the project until it stops leaking. They’ve been there at least five or six times trying to stop these leaks.”

Expressing concern, Miller added, “It doesn’t seem like it’s a lot, but anytime you have a leak in a clarifier or anything metal that’s supposed to hold water, eventually that leak is just going to get worse.”

Miller noted the contractor welded and caulked the leaks last week, but the clarifier continued to leak.