First step to $6.5 million water project approved

By Jennifer McBride / Leader Staff

RONAN — The Ronan city council voted 5-1 Monday to approve step one of a $6.5 million water project which could raise residents' water bills by $33 a month. The council authorized engineering consultant Shari Johnson to start grant writing on what could be the first stage of a larger project which will bring the city in line with state regulations.

"Being the cheap sons of guns we are, we should take the cheapest option possible," mayor Kim Aipperspach said, recommending the city start with the most pressing problems first.

Johnson told Ronan is currently failing multiple Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regulations, starting with the supply of water. Currently, Johnson said the DEQ demands that the city be able to provide 844 gallons per minute in a scenario that has Ronan's largest water source out of service. Discounting the largest of Ronan's two wells, the maximum amount of water Ronan could supply is 550 gallons per minute. If growth in Ronan continues as expected, the city will need to almost double the supply in the next twenty years.

The city has to choose between two different ways to find more water: dig more wells or draw more surface water. Both have their pitfalls. Wells are cheaper, but not necessarily predictable. She said when the city of Polson found themselves in a similar situation, they knew they had two good wells and so chose to drill a well directly between them only to come up empty. Also, Johnson wasn't sure if the city's water rights, which currently apply to surface water could be transferred to ground water. On the other hand, surface water can also be unpredictable. After a flood in 2005, Mark Clary, the city water supervisor, said the creek Ronan draws part of its water from has been running low, possibly because some of the flow had been shifted underground. Surface water also has to be treated differently, which can be more expensive, Johnson said. When Aipperspach commented that the river could be affected by droughts, council member Cal Hardy reminded the council "if water ain't coming down the hill, we aren't going to have water in the wells, either."

Johnson recommended that the city drill two wells to provide water to both ends of the city, if possible. Of course, she admitted she didn't know if any strong wells were available.

"Drilling wells is always a tricky business," she said.

One of the well sites she selected is also outside city limits, which could create legal headaches. Finding the water will also take some exploration. Council member Penny Ross jokingly recommended the city council hire some "witchers" to find underground water.

Besides supply, the broken equipment on Ronan's tank means the city's maximum water storage is only 140,000 gallons — far short of the 970,000 gallons the DEQ requires for Ronan's current population. If the city size increases according to the city's growth (which is in its final stages of being hammered out) the Ronan will need 1,120,000 gallons in 20 years. Johnson said the city also has some pressure/backflow concerns in some areas.

On top of the other problems, Johnson pointed out that there are several water mains in town with 4-inch circumference piping, which isn't wide enough to provide fire protection the Old Creamery mall area and parts of downtown. Aipperspach said he thought a new developer might be able to pick up the tab for south highway distribution improvements.

Besides supply, storage and distribution, the DEQ also passed new requirements for water treatment which must be implemented by 2014, Johnson said. Right now, Ronan is required to treat its surface water for giardia, an intestinal parasite, and put chlorine in its wells. By 2014, Ronan will have to treat its surface water for cryptosporidium, a similar parasite that the Centers for the Disease Control say causes intense cramps and diarrhea. In order to meet the regulations, the city of Ronan will have to rebuild their water treatment plant essentially from scratch. The 18-year-old surface water plant is too outdated, Johnson explained, to be retrofitted.

Each of these problems has a multimillion dollar price tag. Johnson estimated adding two wells and a new storage tank to the town would cost $6.746 million. Improving the surface water plant could take anywhere from $920,000 to $7.13 million, depending on the sanitation method the city used and whether or not the city chose to include filtration in the upgrade. While water filtration is not required now, Johnson said that the "word on the street" is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to require filters on all water systems in all cities

"You're going to have to filter one day," she said. "We just don't know when."

Laying pipeline in areas vulnerable to fire would require another $4.67 million. The total price tag of taking care of everything except filtration, Johnson said, would be $12.05 million — a number which left the city council frustrated and depressed.

"You guys are up against the wall when it comes to regulation," Johnson said. "Some of these things, there won't be a choice."

To make matters worse, the application deadline for several two-year grants is in two weeks.

"Decisions do have to made right now," Johnson said.

She explained Ronan would also have to fight for grants with 50 or 60 other communities with the exact same problem, triggered by new DEQ storage requirements which was passed two years ago. Even if Ronan picks up all the grants they apply for, Johnson guessed the city would get a maximum of $1 to $2 million in funding. For the other $5 million, the council will have to apply for low-interest loans. Paying them off will drive up water rates.

"The good news is, you know there are people, state and federal programs who can help," she said. "But you also know how far their money doesn't go."

In the end, the city council voted to break the water improvements down in phases. They asked Johnson to start working on grants for a $6.5 million plan which would fund a new storage tank, the drilling of one of the two proposed wells, a new pipe loop for downtown Ronan and some study on how to best upgrade the city's sanitation to necessary levels.

Cal Hardy, the sole city council member to vote against giving the go-ahead to start planning the grant, said he felt frustrated by the time pressure.

"I always hate when we sit down and say, oh we have two weeks to make a decision on a $6.5 million project!" Hardy said.

Paul Soukup reminded Hardy that, even if the city receives the grant money, they don't have to use it.

Depending on how much money grants color, Ronan residents could see a substantial hike in their water bill — about $5 per month per million the city needs to take out in loans. Without grants, the water bill would rise by $33 a month. Mark Clary of the Ronan reminded the city council that Ronan water rates hadn't been hiked in 10 years, but Johnson pointed out that Ronan was already above the recommended combined price for sewer and water for a city of its size and income level, based on the last U.S. census. About 58 percent of Ronan's population has a low to moderate level of income, Johnson said.

The mayor agreed. "Getting money will be like squeezing blood out of a turnip," he said, especially because the city sewer may also need improvement. Johnson said she thought the city could "squeeze by" with its current lagoon system for the next five to ten years. Ronan's sewer is currently in violation of EPA requirements, but Johnson thought the state and national agencies would acknowledge the city could only fund one project at a time.

The city council acknowledged that a phased project would leave them in violation of DEQ requirements for some time while they get everything fixed, but Johnson said she thought the state would be willing to work with the city as long as they showed they were trying to obey the law. Not following DEQ regulations could lead to daily fines and a possible moratorium on future growth.

"They won't let you add developments if they think its unsafe," she said.

Many city council members expressed frustration at the one-size-fits all nature of the law.

"I don't know what they expect from communities who can't even take care of their streets," said council member Dick Jungers.

In other news, the city council:

? Approved planned improvements for the Ronan Airport, as long as it doesn't require condemning nearby properties. The airport wants to put in a new, 4,800 foot runway and extensions on the current runway sometime in the long term.

? Approved funding for the Ronan Police Department, which is buying a used police car plus equipment from Idaho to replace current maintenance-heavy cars. The Police Department also hired Deann McLauchlin as a fill-in administrative officer.

Assistant Police Chief Art Walgren also said he would be starting a public campaign asking for ideas on where to find "creative" funding sources. The police department is about to lose $50,000 in new-renewable grant money and it has already received 1,000 more calls this year than last year.