The city’s new manager sat down with the Wrangell Assembly last week to hammer out priorities for the coming year.
Beginning the position in mid-July, Lisa Von Bargen decided she preferred to work more closely with the city’s elected officials, and recommended the goal-setting work sessions as a means to that end.
“In my contract with the assembly, I said I wanted to have a goal setting and work session with them to establish what the priorities were that they wanted to see done,” she explained.
Preparing a list of three dozen different projects – from waterfront development and solid waste disposal to succession planning and procurement policy – discussions yielded two main prerogatives for the city.
“The water treatment plant solution and the hospital solution,” said Von Bargen.
Wrangell’s water treatment plant had been a major source of concern heading into the summer, with local officials not wanting a repeat performance of July 2016, when its production failed to keep up with demand. The 17-year-old plant’s slow sand filtration bays are prone to clogging and require regular clearing, and with a “perfect storm” of other problems, a tight staff was unable to keep output on step with the summertime peak demand, a substantial source of which comes from seafood processing. With treated reserves running dangerously low last summer, emergency controls on use were put into effect which temporarily disrupted production at Wrangell’s two fish plants.
Additional seasonal staff was hired for 2017, a formal emergency response plan adopted, and new methods of cleaning the filters tried. Together, these fixes helped make the summer’s production go normally.
In the longer term, replacing the plant itself was once the goal, building one which uses a method of dissolved air filtration better suited to Wrangell’s water supply. Pilot testing last summer indicated a DAF plant would do well here, but cost estimates nearly double expectation made replacement infeasible.
“The grant and loan package that we applied for and was offered by USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Rural Development, specifically the loan repayment, is too much for the water fund to absorb without additional rate increases beyond those that are already scheduled for the next two years,” Von Bargen explained. “It’s substantive enough that we weren’t willing to go there as a potential solution.”
Since then, assessments by engineers have prescribed some fixes at the plant that could extend its usability and improve efficiency. “The next phase that needs to be looked at are the roughing filters,” Von Bargen said.
The roughing filters are a preliminary stage of treatment, which water coming from the lower reservoir first passes through. Their design leaves them prone to clog, however, and as they weren’t designed to automatically flush, staff must do so manually.
“When the roughing filters are cleaned, that whole basin needs to be emptied of water,” Von Bargen explained.
What gets wasted is around 150,000 gallons of treated water per cleaning, and one of the recommended improvements would be installation of a catch basin or tank able to store it. Further consultations this year have yielded several options for the roughing filters’.
Other improvements to be looked into would be to determine whether the media used in the four slow sand filter units are the right size and consistency. In its years of operation, the material has never been replaced as designed due to cost considerations. The latest estimates put transportation and installation for the new sand to near $1,000,000.
Reducing the sedimentation present in the water that enters the plant would be another possibility. Water currently flows from an upper reservoir to a lower, and from there is piped to the plant. Due to that arrangement the lower reservoir has never been able to be dredged or cleared properly, limiting its volume and contributing more sediment to the water.
“There has been a plan in place to do a bypass line from the upper reservoir,” Von Bargen suggested. Having direct access to water from that reservoir would on one hand allow for cleaner water when it is full, while also allowing the lower reservoir to be taken out of use for needed maintenance. Consultants Shannon & Wilson of Anchorage are already looking at design options for the bypass line.
Another possibility is to determine whether a well could be drilled, tapping into clean water from a natural aquifer. Shannon & Wilson is also investigating whether Wrangell would hydrologically be a good candidate for having an accessible aquifer.
“It’s worth looking at,” said Von Bargen. The cost of drilling for an aquifer could be pricey, though that would ultimately depend on a number of factors. “It depends on where it is, it depends on how deep you have to go.”
To improve overall efficiency once water has left the plant, the city has several options to pursue. One would be better leak detection on water pipelines around town. Equipment for that purpose has been borrowed from Alaska Rural Water Association, though Von Bargen said Public Works will look into investing into its own equipment.
“We’re going to have that advantage over the next month, I guess,” she said.
Metering water on individual users would be another possibility, though the initial expense of procuring and installing the devices could be great. Already in use on large-volume commercial and industrial users, residential and smaller commercial meters could lower overall demand by making users more conscious.
These and other options will eventually be presented as a revitalization package, Von Bargen explained, with a cost assessment determining whether that direction would cost less than plant replacement, which has variously been estimated between $8.5 million and $13 million.
“Far more than we originally thought,” she said.
The other priority the Assembly has given city staff is constructing a new facility for Wrangell Medical Center. A work session with hospital staff is being scheduled for the near future. Accountancy BDO Anchorage has prepared a financial feasibility study on financing a new hospital, which will be presented at that time.
At a WMC Board meeting in April, hospital head Robert Rang expressed confidence in the hospital’s ability to repay up to $21 million over a 30-year time frame. In that light, a new facility would likely need to be scaled down from concepts floated six years ago, which estimated a price tag of $24 million for a new building and equipment. The new facility would still be sited next to Alaska Island Community Services’ clinic on Wood Street.
Also on Von Bargen’s radar for the future, easement and right-of-way issues which have held up repaving and of Evergreen Road and pedestrian improvements are about sorted. Her hope is that the Department of Transportation will be able to begin work on the project next year, which has been delayed for several years.
Assembly members and city staff will also be scheduling a work session to discuss redevelopment of Wrangell’s former Institute property, and whether those plans might include a residential, accelerated high school there.
Last week a letter to the Department of Environmental Conservation regarding a proposed monofill site was approved by the Assembly. Meant to store treated but lead-contaminated soil from the former Byford junkyard site, the monofill idea raised concerns with the public when it was revealed its location would be at a state-owned rock pit near Pats Creek. Due to begin at the end of July 2017, construction of the site has since been postponed until next April. DEC felt this would give the community time to bring forward alternatives, such as finding additional funding needed to pay for the soil’s removal from the island. Delivered last Wednesday, the city’s letter to DEC seeks clarification on what would be needed or possible to resite or redesign the monofill.
Reader Comments(0)