Ferron City and Clawson Town will be getting a new water treatment plant. Jacob Sharp, District Manager of Castle Valley Special Service District said the Ferron Water Treatment Plant will be online as soon as final approval is received from the Utah Division of Drinking Water.
The plant has been started and tested in the past few weeks and the District is anxious to get the new plant online. The Utah DDW has inspected the facility and an operating permit will soon be issued. Sharp said that the water will taste the same since the source (Millsite Reservoir) is the same.
The original plant was put into service in the 1960s. The Castle Valley Special Service District was formed in the late 1970s and took over operation and maintenance. The existing plant has been running for nearly 40 years; it’s outdated and parts are becoming harder to find. The old plant will be decommissioned once the new plant is up and running.
Sharp stated the new water treatment plant is a project former Ferron Mayor JoAnn Behling wanted. “The project has been on the horizon since I came on board at the District. It’s been a two-three year process. The District submitted the project to the Community Impact Board for funding. After reviewing bids from four engineering firms, the District’s Administrative Control Board selected Johansen & Tuttle Engineering to do a feasibility study to see what type of plant to build,” said Sharp.
Sharp stated the preferred plant was a conventional water treatment plant. This decision was based on the water quality in Ferron. It is a conventional water treatment plant with flocculators, clarifiers and filters. Chemical is added to the water, which causes any particulates to stick together and settle to the bottom of the clarifiers. These snowflake size pieces settle and are filtered out, leaving clean water. Sodium Hypochlorite is added to disinfect and purify the water, making it safe to drink. The chemicals settle out any particles in the water and aid in taste and odor control.
Sharp said Millsite water tends to be a little muddy. “Since we do not have a settling pond at this plant to settle out particulates before water enters the plant, the treatment plant takes in high turbidity water. The yearly spring run-off affects the water quality going into the plant. Because of the water quality, a membrane plant would have needed pre-treatment of the water. We chose not to do that because it is cost prohibitive. The District’s crew is used to running this type of plant, which also factored into the decision to go with the conventional type of plant. Our design had to be approved by the Utah DDW. We had to wait for reviews and approval from the State before we could proceed,” said Sharp.
The District bid out the project in February, 2016. The bid was awarded to Harward & Rees Construction from Loa, Utah. Work began in late March. The District also bid out the equipment for the new plant separately through various suppliers to keep the costs down.
The funding from the CIB was in the form of a 50 percent loan and a 50 percent grant. The total project cost will be $2.7 Million. The loan portion has a 1.5 interest rate. The water users in Ferron and Clawson will not see a rate increase with the opening of the new water treatment plant. The District pays for its projects with tax revenue and works very hard to structure its bonds so that tax rates in the District remain level.
“Harward & Rees Construction have done a great job. During the transition, Ferron will not be without water. The two storage tanks will be filled completely prior to the switch. The current plant and the new plant operate according to the water level in the storage tanks. When the water levels drop to a certain point the plant kicks on. The new plant will be a one million gallon per day capacity plant. The plant should rarely run at full capacity, but it was designed with a 50 year projection of water usage in the future,” said Sharp.
Sharp is very happy with this project. It is a metal building with insulated panels and it has turned out very nice. Water is piped directly out of Millsite Reservoir and into the plant. When the reconstruction of the Millsite Dam takes place over the next few years they will still keep water coming to the plant.
Sharp stated another feature to the new plant is a turbine generator, which will generate some of the power needed to operate the plant. Solar panels have also been added, which will greatly reduce the power bill. The plant has two filtering units; they both do the same thing. “We can do maintenance and cleaning in one filter unit while the other is operating. The filtering unit consists of a layer of gravel, smaller gravel, pea gravel, sand, garnet and a coal filter. The sand layer is several feet thick. These materials will last a long time before they need to be replaced,” said Sharp.
The plant is constantly monitored. If something goes wrong, the built-in alarms will shut the plant down automatically. Monitors check for turbidity, chlorine, pH, temperature and other parameters Chemical is added before the water enters the flocculation basins where paddles turn and mix the water. The water then passes though the settling tube clarifiers where particles settle out. The water then goes through the final filters and anything that has not settled out is filtered out. The finished water then enters the distribution system. Ferron City has two storage tanks that are each 500,000 gallons. The Clawson tank holds 150,000 gallons. Finished water is pumped from the plant to the storage tanks. Two new pumps have been put into the new building. When the plants are operating, the pumps are controlled automatically.
The building is heated by geothermal heating. The capital costs for geothermal heating are expensive, but it will eliminate very expensive propane heating costs and will pay for itself. It works for heating and cooling of the building. “Our crew dug the pit for the geothermal piping. It’s really going to be an efficient building,” said Sharp.
Sharp said the plant runs until the water tanks are full. There are radio communications between the plant and the water storage tanks. There is a back-up generator in the plant. If power is lost, the generator will still allow the plant to operate. This is one of the State requirements. “Millsite is our only source of water for this plant. We have no back-up water here, so as long as Millsite has water, then Ferron will have water. Our crew does water testing daily, checking for chlorine and turbidity levels,” said Sharp.
All the water to date that has run through the plant for testing and calibrating has filtered to waste. None of the water has entered into the system yet. “We took samples to the health department for testing and approval. There are several standards that we must adhere to in order to operate these plants. The goal is to deliver clean, quality water that exceeds all requirements,” said Sharp.
Castle Valley Special Service District crew members who operate the new Ferron Water Treatment Plant include Dave Mangum, Garrett Hansen and Jesse Jones.
The District is planning an open house so that anyone interested can come and check out the new facility.
Ferron Treatment plant ready to come on line
"The finished water leaves the water treatment plant through these pipes"