But recent work helps avoid disruption to water system

Upgrades made to Powell’s water system last summer are already proving their worth, helping deal with problems with one of the city’s water towers.

The water tower on the east side of Powell, near Homesteader Park, has been temporarily shut down, as a leak was detected by the City of Powell Water/Wastewater Department. Powell’s water needs are now being supplied solely by the tower on the west end of town.

“We knew that the old tower had some repairs that needed to be done that we were on borrowed time with,” said water superintendent Bill Winters. “But we could never take it offline without causing some issues throughout the other half of town.”

That’s where the summer work on the water system in downtown Powell — which cost between $750,000 and $800,000 — came in.

“We got the funding we needed so upgrades could be made, enabling us to take the tower offline if need be without affecting service,” Winters said.

City Administrator Zane Logan said a large gasket at the top of the east tower pole is the culprit behind the leak; once the leak was discovered, the tower was isolated and water was redirected to the west tower.

“The city is made up of two zones,” Logan explained. “There’s a west pressure zone and an east pressure zone. There are four points where those systems come together, called pressure reducing valves (PRVs). Some fine-tuning was able to level out the pressure, so those stations really did their jobs.”

The east tower was shut off and drained, and differential pressure was adjusted so that water would run smoothly in the west zone. This was made possible by last summer’s upgrades.

“They put pressure regulators inside the PRVs,” Winters said. “When the regulators see that the pressure is going low on that side, it kicks the PRVs on. That way we can shut off the tower and it will still maintain our pressures on the east part of town. If the pressure goes too high, the PRVs will shut everything down so we’re not blowing mains apart. It now maintains around 50-55 psi all the time.”

Knowing that work was needed on the old tower, the water department made sure the new system would provide a “fail-safe” component in case issues arose. No one, not even Winters, imagined it would be called into service this quickly.

“Thank God everything was in,” he said. “I wanted everything in place by the first of October just because of the cold and in case there was any adjustments to be made, which there were. It’s a new system; there’s always bugs.”

With the west tower now able to pick up the slack of its eastern counterpart, Winters said it will likely be spring before a crew will arrive to make necessary repairs. Had the shut-down of the east tower been considered an emergency to the city, repairs would have been immediate, but much more costly. A number of factors, not the least of which are bitterly cold temperatures, led to the decision to schedule repairs for spring.

“As cold as it is, I told them not to hurry; let’s get our work done when you have better conditions,” Winters said. “You get a better job when you have better conditions. Now that we’ve got everything working, we’re figuring March or April. I’d like the tower back online before we start having higher water use in spring and summer.”

Logan agreed, and said the city is working out the details for the repair project.

“We’re working on the budget numbers now so we’ll know what the cost is,” Logan said. “The west tower is working fine and there are no concerns about having it do the work. Water usage is always down this time of year, so we can operate this way for a few months. Most people won’t even notice a difference. Waiting until spring will be a lot warmer and a lot less expensive.”

Logan praised the council for approving the recent water project, and was pleased the tools were in place to handle what could have been an unpleasant situation.

“You discuss all this, the engineering, all the budgeting and grant stuff, but you really don’t think about the need, until it just happens,” he said. “We knew it was something that needed to be done.”

The Shoshone Municipal Pipeline is the source for the city’s water.