St. Ignatius weighs water project at public hearing

By Jennifer McBride / Leader Staff

ST. IGNATIUS — Two members of the St. Ignatius City Council were present to hear a public presentation on plans for a $500,000 upgrade to the water system, which Samantha Stoughtenger, one of two Great West Engineering employees giving the presentation, said would be critical to the city's future.

"Obviously, we have some concerns about public health, safety and welfare," she said, discussing the results of a preliminary engineering report.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality requires that the city water system be capable of meeting the maximum demand if its largest well was disabled in an emergency. St. Ignatius currently has two wells which provide a total of 455 gallons of water to the city every minute. If the largest of these were disabled, St. Ignatius would only receive 205 gallons per minute — 65 gallons short of the 270 gallons per minute Mission residents use during peak time in the summer. Stoughtenger said, based on census projections, St. Ignatius would need to provide 352 gallons per minute by 2030.

Because St. Ignatius doesn't meet the legal requirements now, the first and most pressing need for the city is a new well with pump house and generator capable of supplying the city. To drill the well, St. Ignatius will have to apply for new permits. While the town is well under its maximum draw permitted by law, its permitted two water sources, not three. If permitted, Great West Engineering proposes to drill the well north of Mission creek. Currently, both of Mission's well are located south of the creek, with only a single water main connecting them to the north side of town. If the line was cut, St. Ignatius citizens north of the brook would still have access to the water in storage but not any fresh well water, which could be devastating in the case of a fire.

Which is why the second part of phase one will focus on minor improvements to Mission's water distribution system, Stoughtenger said, including adding a second connection just west of the current main. The city will also need to install new pipes in some areas, because the minimum size of a water line used for fire protection is six inches in diameter.

"Fortunately, the town is in really good shape when it comes to distribution," Stoughtenger said. "You're really an anomaly." Only 9 percent of all water mains are less than six inches: lines on Mountain View Drive, Home Addition and Arrow street. In addition, all area of the town meet residential fire flow requirements except the High School and Griffiths Street. The fire chief has determined the latter has sufficient flow to meet its current needs, Stoughtenger explained. The engineers plan to replace the maintenance-heavy narrow, steel lines with larger, more maintenance-friendly PVC pipe on the three streets currently not meeting minimum standards.

Finally, the town will conduct a leak detection survey, because St. Ignatius has above average water consumption for similar towns its size. They also plan to add meters in Mission parks to monitor water usage.

The engineers estimate the total cost of phase one of the project will be approximately $506,000. After an initial investment, St. Ignatius will also need to pay $5,000 a year for annual maintenance costs.

In phase two, which Fred Phillips, the other engineer, said won't start for several years, the council plans to improve storage. Currently, Mission's 300,000-gallon water tower is meeting legal storage requirements for both normal operational use and loss of power emergencies. If electricity went down, residents would still have access to water for more than 18 hours during peak water use time. However, Mission's insurance company recommends that St. Ignatius add another 425,925 gallons of storage, which would provide water four hours of water to the High School in the event of a disastrous fire. By 2030, to provide fire coverage for the school, the town would need an additional 1,021,803 gallons of storage — unless the school puts in an automated sprinkler system, which would reduce the cost by a significant amount.

Stoughtenger said having the school install a system had several advantages: first, it's more cost-effective. A tank capable of handling over a million gallons of water would cost $4 million, compared with the 500,000 storage tank's projected cost of $1.87 million, she explained. Not only is the sprinkler system less pricey, but the cost could be spread over more people, because the district has more population than the city. Second, the huge water tank could provide a public safety risk. Phillips calculated that it would take 10 to 15 days for the water to turnover completely. The stagnant, non-chlorinated well water would be a breeding pool for bacteria.

Unfortunately, St. Ignatius schools have already been suffering from budget cutbacks and this will be one more expense. Phillips said footing the bill for a sprinkler system would be a necessary evil.

"Small towns can't afford to oversize their capacity just for one building," Phillips said.

At minimum, engineers estimated a new storage tank would cost $1,990,170 in initial building costs and another $11,100 per year to maintain, bringing the total initial costs of both phases of the project to more than $2 million. Despite the expense, Phillips estimated that, because of grants and low interest loans, the cost to residential home owners for phase one — the well and the distribution system — would be only $1.27 a month, less than Phillips originally projected. Stoughtenger was confident state grants would pay for about 70 percent of the project because of Mission's needs.

"We have a very high success rate with applying for grants," she said. If the state legislature approves the application next year, construction will begin in 2010.

The two members of the public who showed up for the meeting, Norm Mitner and Lyle Hilfigure, both spoke in favor of the plan.

"We need this project," Hilfigure said. "I've known that ever since I moved here."

The council will consider whether or not to authorize Great West Engineering to begin the grant writing process at their regular meeting Monday night at 7 p.m.