At the Oct. 22 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Sewanee Utility District of Franklin and Marion Counties, the board heard a report about the leak in the water tower near the University Farm, learned about the status of the automated meter reading effort, and reviewed the capital improvements budget.
A very small leak was discovered in the water tower on Breakfield Road on Oct. 17, SUD manager Ben Beavers reported. The tank is leaking about 5 gallons per minute, Beavers estimated, but it is impossible to tell exactly how much is escaping as the water dissipates before reaching the ground.
“We won’t know what caused the leak until we get it drained,” he said. A contractor from Shelbyville will be coming to Sewanee during the week of Oct. 28 to repair the leak.
Beavers said the 365,000-gallon tank will have to be completely drained before it can be repaired. The contractor will weld a plate on the inside of the tank at the site of the leak, weld a plate on the outside of the tank, and then paint the patches.
Once the leak is fixed, SUD will refill the tank with a water and bleach mixture (300 ppm/bleach) to sterilize the tank. SUD will then neutralize the bleach and drain the tank; they will refill the tank and take a bacteriological sample to ensure that the water is safe.
“This leak isn’t affecting our operations,” Beavers said. “We can hardly see a drop in the tank level.”
Beavers said that during the tank’s repair, SUD will pump water from the water tank at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School. During this time, he said he expects customers in the Jump Off and Midway areas will have slightly increased pressure; customers in Sewanee will have slightly reduced pressure.
“I expect the entire process to take no more than three or four days,” he said. The estimate for the repairs is about $3,400.
When questioned by a board member about the possibility of repainting the entire water tower now, Beavers noted that the estimated cost for that project is $60,000. Repainting is scheduled for 2015.
As part of the manager’s report, Beavers noted that numerous lines in the Oak Street and Magnolia Street area of Sewanee have been replaced because of the poor condition of the pipes. Old galvanized pipe had corroded significantly restricting water flow. Residents in the area now have improved water pressure unless they have galvanized pipe inside their homes.
The new meters for the automated meter reading (AMR) program are on order. The software that manages the AMR program will be installed before Thanksgiving, Beavers said. The first residential AMR meters to be installed will be in the Jump Off and Midway areas.
The board reviewed the capital improvements budget for 2013, 2014 and beyond. Beavers explained that once the AMR system is in place and the leaks in the system repaired, there are not any major problems with the system. —Reported by Laura Willis
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