City OKs plan for water project

The City of Sidney has enough water to meet its needs as it continues to grow, but has deficiencies in how the water is distributed, according to a water system master plan presented at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

The company’s water plan detailed five projects they hope to begin over the next five years. Water engineer Lauren Benton of Diamondback Engineering presented the plan for new water distribution pipelines and improvements to the existing booster pump station.

“I’ve got to commend the City of Sidney, because you guys have done an excellent job of securing a long-term water source,” Benton said.

Sidney has two water pressure zones: a low-pressure zone and a high-pressure zone.

According to Benton, the low-pressure zone has sufficient water storage capacity to meet the daily needs of the city, totaling about 2.7 million gallons. Water demand for this zone is about 1.4 million gallons.

However, water storage capacity for the high-pressure zone is 250,000 gallons per day, whereas the average daily demand is about 310,000 gallons.

“Typically, you want about at least one day’s worth of (water) storage,” Benton said. “Right now, the city doesn’t even have enough for one day of storage up in that high-pressure zone.”

Water for the high-pressure zone is supplied solely by the east booster pump station, located near the waste water treatment facility. The station’s three aging 800 gallons-per-minute pumps won’t supply enough water to meet growing demand or during an emergency.

“(The booster pump station) is the sole source of water for the high-pressure zone where you guys have a lot of development, a lot of commercial and retail,” Benton said.

“When we look at the ability to pump water during fire-flow conditions, or in future demands, that pumping is not going to be adequate.”

The first project in the plan includes updating the east booster pump station with new, 1500 gpm pumps and installing additional 12-inch distribution lines to supply water to the high-pressure zone. The project also includes the installation of a permanent emergency generator, which would allow the pumps to run even if there was a lightning strike or other emergency condition.

City Manager Gary Person says despite low water sales this past year, the city did have enough in the budget to get the engineering and design work done for the upcoming water projects.

Councilman Mark Nienhueser said he felt that Diamondback Engineering had done a good job figuring out the city’s water needs, and that it would be wise to move forward.

“I think it was a great report,” he said. “It did what we wanted to do – highlighted where our system is at, what’s right with it and what’s wrong with it … I’m comfortable with going ahead and funding the engineering of the first leg.”

The council gave the go-ahead to Diamondback Engineering to move forward with the design of this first project. When the city is ready to move ahead with actual construction, they will consider financing options.