Nicky Boyette – Barry Connell, plant manager at the Freeman-Raney Water Treatment Plant, told the Carroll-Boone Water District board at its April 21 meeting that in February staff at the plant suspected something was wrong with a section of the transmission line south of Berryville. On Feb. 12, personnel were getting ready to go to the vicinity and walk the line to find the problem when a person who had been walking his dog along County 322 called to report a hole in the ductile iron pipe.
Connell and crew went to the scene and found a leak that had bored a hole in the ground deep enough to lose a shovel in. He said it sounded like a jet engine. However, they were able to repair the pipe fairly quickly without shutting down the flow of water.
Connell reported there is a new concern. That same transmission runs near a portion of Keels Creek about a quarter mile west of County Road 302. In 2012, CBWD contracted with consulting engineers McGoodwin, Williams & Yates to stabilize a section of Keels Creek where erosion of the bank had put a section of CBWD pipe in jeopardy. Engineer Chris Hall of MWY stated the 2012 repair is holding well, but just upstream from that location winter floods seriously eroded another 40-60 feet of bank and the pipeline is in jeopardy again.
Hall said if the pipe were to burst, all customers downstream –Berryville, Green Forest and Harrison – would be under a boil order for at least the couple of days it would take to repair the pipe. However, MWY has already applied for a grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management to proactively stabilize the stream bank again. He said, as with the previous project, they would bring in riprap and boulders and even use fill from the creek to restore the creek bank back to its original position before the erosion, then add topsoil and plant grass in areas that needed to be reclaimed.
Between the two funding agencies, 87.5 percent of the $600,000-700,000 repair would be covered by the grant. The good news, according to Hall, is the creek veers away from the transmission line after this section.
Hall toured the site with representatives of FEMA but has not yet learned if the grant has been awarded. He said if the grant were awarded, he would want to begin work quickly to prevent any further erosion and protect the transmission line.
The board voted to authorize MWY to aggressively pursue this project.
Other projects
Hall said the parallel transmission line project has moved beyond nearby residences, and even though the terrain is rough, they can make faster progress toward Hwy. 23. Hall stated that in another part of the project, contractors would in late May or early June begin boring a tunnel under the Kings River for inserting a section of pipe.
In other business, the board voted to award the three-year sludge removal contract to Miller-Lagoon Services.
Finances
Office manager Cathy Klein reported the project for moving a section of the transmission line because of the widening of US 62 near Green Forest is complete, and it came in under budget. Total cost was $1,354,000 of which $890,116 will be reimbursed by the Arkansas Highway Department.
She also announced the plant had produced about 18 million more gallons to date than they had budgeted. Also, she noted they are $52,000 under budget on expenses, partly because of lower than expected electricity bills. Klein stated, all factors considered, they are $81,000 favorable compared to their budget.
Next meeting will be Thursday, July 21, at 10 a.m. at the Freeman-Raney Water Treatment Plant.