After reviewing General Manager Jerry Holldber’s report, the Pine Cove Water District board of directors toured recently completed plant facilities and intended fire line expansion plan locations.
The board tour included the Rocky Point Tanks, the Highway Tanks and booster station on Highway 243, and two planned fire line expansions. Holldber and staff were particularly proud of the district’s new capacity, with the Highway Tanks and booster station, to service district needs in the case of an emergency and power failure.
The board also reviewed Holldber’s phased pipeline replacement program for 2012 including the planned fire line along Highway 243 from the district’s present boundary to Stonewood, also a stop on the tour. Future expansion of district water service to Stonewood is still on the table, said Holldber.
He noted that recently approved grant monies should facilitate purchase of nearly all of the projected pipe replacement. Holldber counseled that it’s always a good idea to buy large quantities of pipe since replacement costs continue to rise. “In two years pipe has gone up $3.60 per foot,” he explained.
He also noted the continued decline in water production, from 3.1 million gallons in September 2011 to 2.6 million gallons this September. Holldber cited declines in static measuring well no. 10, down two feet. “All other wells are holding up because we’re not pumping so much from them,” he observed.