By Mai Ling Slaughter, The Chronicle,6/21/2000
PE ELL - Weighing current and future water needs is something the Pe Ell Town Council does not take lightly.
For months, councilors have scrutinized the different options for building a new water treatment plant for the town, while searching for the time and money to repair problems with the connecting pipes.
At Tuesday's regular meeting, councilors expressed their preferences for a new treatment plant, but decided to wait until they have all the facts before making a firm decision.
Although the town has $2.3 million in grants and loans for the plant at its disposal, any excess money may be designated toward repairing the system's ailing infrastructure.
"For all the projects we need to do," said Councilor Dolores Lee, "we, as councilors, need to think about what the people need." She and Councilor Norline Hahn seemed to lean toward a conventional plant - the least expensive option at $938,000 - to provide the town more money to upgrade water lines.
But Councilor Jerry Bryant said he is wary of replacing the town's 20-year-old conventional plant, ruled "inadequate" in 1996 by the state Department of Health, with another one.
"We have been putting a tremendous amount of money into that thing," he said. "Now it's not working." He and Councilor Ron Dorothy both leaned toward the slow-sand filter plant, the midrange option estimated at $1.25 million. But consulting company Gray and Osborne Inc. is now testing a miniature version of that type of plant to see if it will I even work for the town water supply year-round.
Project engineer Cam Meriweather said workers should know by January whether the backup water supply from the Chehalis River will clog up the sand filter, or simply result in clean water. Normally, the town receives its water from Lester Creek, which is also part of the yearlong test.
None of the councilors wanted to rule out the membrane plant, which not only would cost the most at $1.6 million, but would require frequent equipment replacement that could cost up to $10,000 every five years.
All three options could treat 350 gallons of water a minute, more than enough for the roughly 360 households now hooked up to the town's water treatment system.
Depending on which option the council chooses to implement, it could have between $52,000 and $713,000 to spend on improvements to the distribution system.
The council decided to concentrate on repairing leaks this year, but plans to begin enlarging many of the system's pipes to allow adequate fire flow when it knows how much money it has to spare.
Mai Ling Slaughter covers municipal government for The Chronicle. She can be reached by E-mail at mslaughter@chronline.com or by telephoning 807-8237.
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