First-Pass Solutions to HSV Water System Challenges

On February 22, 2024, during the Hot Springs Village POA Public Services Committee Work Session, Ken Unger, HSVPOA Public Services Director, and Brian Wintle from Crist Engineering discussed first-pass solutions to HSV water system challenges. Two challenging areas are addressed – adequate water flow in case of a fire (fire flow) and household needs.

This discussion is not about a plan set in stone. Data is still being collected. Other options such as conservation and changing watering habits (household irrigation) might postpone or reduce a major water system upgrade.

HSVPOA Public Services Director Ken Unger said they have been working to determine our water needs for several months. “We have an aging infrastructure with some of our water tanks and also have line issues that we are repairing. The Board approved two water main replacements at the February 21 Board Meeting,” stated Unger. Click here to read the article about the water main replacements.

Wintle asked, what improvements from a cost perspective should be made? We are also trying to double dip, so the question needs to be asked, ‘What improvements would alleviate or improve domestic service as well as improved fire flow?'”

Fire flow needs in the Village

Unger explained, “One of the biggest [water] issues we must address is supply – supply throughout the Village for not only [consumer] demand but fire flow. What you are about to see from Brian [Wintle] is Crist Engineering’s first pass at looking at our system. They have been modeling it for the last several months. We’ve been putting logging devices out there. They’ve been working with us on the *GIS to ensure they have all the main sizes and everything identified. We’re still working through some of those issues. What Brian Wintle is about to present is showing where our challenges are and their [Crist Engineering’s] first-pass solutions to these challenges. He will explain why they categorize things from a fire flow perspective. There will be some decisions we need to make over the course of the next thirty – sixty – ninety days, as this gets refined, as to what approach we want to take.”

Water pressure

Water Pressure Loggers make verification of low water pressure complaints easy, locating water pressure spikes and even providing water distribution system modeling data.

Wintle said the map below is based on computer modeling and from the limited pressure logging data we’ve had. We’re going to continue to develop and refine that. (See Exhibit 1.) We have a limited number of pressure loggers that we are putting out there, and then we are capturing data for a period of time and moving them to another location.” Ensuring that the field data and the computer data match is critical.

Wintle stated that this is a macro analysis and a work in progress. This is a very, very high-level analysis, taking into account the full extent of our distribution system – a broad brush stroke. Using our limited calibration information, the map shows the potential areas of concern or challenge.

In the exhibit below, red designates water flow less than 750 gallons a minute. Yellow designates a water flow of 750 to 1000 gallons a minute. This is looking at the individual lines that feed a fire hydrant and what they can convey. Wintle said that getting higher flow rates out of individual fire hydrants is a challenge, and there are several factors causing loss of flow. “That is why the fire department strings hoses to everything; anything they can hook onto, they will. They usually have a pumper truck. Nobody is out there with a pressure gauge.”

All the areas that are not color-coded, for the most part, have a water pressure of more than 1000 gallons a minute. But, Wintle said, when you zoom in, you may see areas not achieving 1000 gallons a minute. Insurance companies include many more criteria when evaluating policy costs than just information on a map like this.

Unger said, “In an ideal world, we want a minimum [water pressure] of 750; Potentially 1000 is what we want. Home density in an area affects the numbers. You could get away with 750 if the houses aren’t clustered all together. We would be good if we had a 1000 gallons per minute flow everywhere. We don’t have that. That is what this map is trying to tell us. The question is, ‘What are the worst areas, second worst, and then what does it cost to fix them?'”

Part of the issue is the difficulty in transporting the water to a higher altitude. Wintle said that the topography of the Village makes it an appealing place, but it makes it challenging for infrastructure – roads, water, sewer, etc.

Wintle voiced, “On the periphery, we would have to run thousands of feet to loop a six-inch line to alleviate four or five houses at the end of a utility. Generally speaking, that is also where you have the bulk of your four-inch lines. They are also at the end of a typographical barrier – a lake, mountain, hill.”

Wintle questioned, “We can solve every single one of these areas; Is that economical? We need to go through and look at specific areas. The map gives us a target map; we can zoom in and look at it from a micro-analysis. Maybe there are simple solutions to solve some of the issues in an economically acceptable way. Or maybe there are not.” Working through that as we develop this plan is a collaborative effort.

Two water system components to consider when solving issues

Unger said, “There are two main components to solving the water flow issue. One is the main [water line] transmission system. That is phase 1. The second component is the individual pockets, once you get the water to that general area, how you get it to the house at the levels we are discussing.”

“There are homes here that, during peak irrigation hours in the summertime, where the water pressure drops almost to zero,” declared Unger. He said this is more common if something is not 100% correct in the water system, such as a downstream valve that unfortunately wasn’t opened after an outage. “We don’t have a lot of margin for error in some areas. That is my short-run focus: ‘Where are the high-risk areas that we see issues every year because of irrigation.'”

Wintle is developing three service improvement suggestions

Wintle said they have developed three service improvement phases based on current and future consumptive demands to get more water to areas during high-demand time frames – transmission lines, an additional clear well, and an additional water tank.

According to Wikipedia, “A clear well (sometimes spelled as “clearwell”) is a component of a municipal drinking water purification system. It refers to the final storage stage in the system, following the filtration and disinfection stages. The filtered water is held in a storage basin to allow the disinfectant to inactivate any remaining pathogens.

In May, Unger and Wintle looked at potential tank locations because of the issue with the old tanks. Then, they looked at getting more water from the water treatment plant to those areas and how to do that. Lastly, they looked at the fire-challenged areas and asked what solutions could be implemented.

Wintle said new water tanks are made of steel and are repairable.

Transmission lines

Unger said the plan shows transmission (water main) delivery from the plant to the east side, which we don’t have today. The ten proposed improvements are listed in Exhibit 2.

Unger said the goal is to give us the best ability to address all sub-areas with issues and eliminate them with the least amount of capital and infrastructure improvements.

Unger estimated that total infrastructure costs would range from $15 M to $25 M. This would include tanks, an additional clear well, transmission mains, and secondary lines. This plan would consolidate two old tanks with one, eliminating the maintenance cost for repair work on the old tanks. The new water tank would have a larger capacity than the combined capacity of the two older tanks. This figure does not include an upgrade to the water plant.

Unger said it is difficult to control our water system because when built, to save money, all of the tanks have a single line for both input and output.

Improvement Options

Wintle said the bulk of the cost (not considering a plant upgrade) would be in water line work, but we also need a redundant clear well. The *Capital Improvements Plan ( CIP) identifies the need for an additional clear well.

Unger said the situation could be solved in several different ways: You can use tanks; or put storage in needed areas; or you can upgrade transmission lines. “My sense is, we are better served having pipes in the ground to get the water where it needs to go, because this solution lasts longer if done correctly and helps with future demand. The least number of water tanks we have, the better. If we can accommodate our storage requirements by adding a clear well to the water plant, and we provide diversity at the water plant at the same time, we’re killing two birds with one stone and that eliminates the need for more above ground tanks elsewhere.”

The plan will change as more pressure logging is completed through the summer. This will give the team almost 3/4 of a year of data from the least to highest demand period. Unger estimated they will fully understand the water system by the year’s fourth quarter and better understand the cost range and what improvements are needed at that time.

Installing lines may be a better solution than adding water tanks

Unger said that POA crews could lay pipes but could not build water tanks, meaning we could self-execute the pipe-laying part of the job.

One consideration when replacing or increasing tanks instead of increasing line transmission capabilities is the turnover time to avoid contamination. During the summer, tank turnover is not an issue, but during the winter, it can be.

Wintle said tanks must be maintained and can be a source of potential vulnerability in the sense of contamination from birds and other things. Tanks require inspection and are a hot topic for the health department. Tanks should be recoated at least every twenty years.

Water lines have a much longer life span, depending on the material used. Wintle said that from a cost-benefit standpoint, water lines are a much better investment than water tanks.

Population fluctuations and irrigation

Water usage is affected by high-population peaks (often due to tourism) and seasonal irrigation. Unger said that they see issues during peak hours. In the past when there were problems supplying water due to irrigation, the POA directed residents to water their yards between the hours of 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. (or close to this). People became conditioned to doing that. This has created a demand issue during this time period. “We have people going to work at 8:00 a.m. who may have difficulty showering,” stated Unger.

Water plant upgrade

Upgrading the water plant from six to eight million gallons per day would cost approximately $15.5 M in today’s dollars. Board Member Larry Siener and Public Services Committee Liaison said, “So the longer we can kick that particular can down the road with lots of other stuff, the better off we are.”

Over 50% of the Water Plant Capital Improvements Plan is in one item: a water plant upgrade. The need for a water plant upgrade is completely driven by consumption. Unger said his drive to discuss reasonable water conservation is because of the $15.5 M cost to upgrade the plant.

Can we solve our water system supply problem by managing usage?

“With the peak water usage occurring between 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. due to irrigation, Unger said his push when they finish modeling the water system will be to try to manage the water supply issue by managing our usage. We need to start talking about it.”

Ken Unger, Hot Springs Village POA Public Services Director

Part of the solution may be an education to water [irrigate] differently. The Village once instituted odd/even days for lawn watering. “We don’t want to get to that point,” emphasized Unger.

David Childs, Public Services Committee Chair said that he has read recommendations that yard irrigation should occur at sunset, rather than sunrise because it lets the water soak in overnight. When you water in the morning, the sun evaporates the water and bakes the plant.

Unger explained that there are some easy solutions, such as possibly changing our watering times and amounts and instituting an inverted rate block structure. We can solve this through education rather than spending millions on avoidable water system upgrades. The water usage numbers are impacted by our behavior. “It is better to start changing our behavior now than when we reach the trigger of 80% to 90% capacity on the water plant and have to spend millions to upgrade the system.”

Wintle said many factors determine how much water your grass needs, such as the grass species, the slope of your property, and a “whole host of things.”

Unger said they would analyze everything and develop a recommended plan

Hot Springs Village Preliminary Proposed Service and Fire Flow Improvements (Exhibit 2)

Emergency Potable Water

For the past seven years, the POA has been paying $40,000 a year for rights to two million gallons of water per day out of Lake Ouachita. We have 13 years remaining to pay off the loan. We are not connected to this system and cannot access this water if needed in an emergency. Unger said, “I hope to negotiate a three-way lease between Hot Springs, North Garland County, and us where we lease or sell these rights to one of the above parties, possibly in exchange for wholesale rates in an emergency or to offset our ongoing costs.  Unfortunately North Garland County can’t supply water to us at this time so offsetting our ongoing costs is probably the best we will get.”

This connectivity arrangement for $40,000 was executed under a previous POA administration, around approximately 2017.

*A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system that analyzes and displays geographically referenced information.

* The HSV Water System Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) contains items totaling $25.9 M. A water plant upgrade is the most expensive item at $15.5 M.

By Cheryl Dowden

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR HSVPOA PUBLIC SERVICES DIRECTOR

Ken Unger
Director Public Services
Hot Springs Village
501-226-9609
Kunger@hsvpoa.org

Click here to contact the HSV Gazette.