Tumwater City Council authorized Mayor Debbie Sullivan on Tuesday, October 3, to sign a service provider agreement with Carollo Engineering Inc. for the project's first phase to develop additional water sources.
The contract is for $245,628, with the project's first phase expected to take up to eight months.
Water Resources Program Manager Patrick Soderberg told the council they are undertaking the project to get ahead of the city’s projected demand.
The city’s water supply is currently performing adequately based on average daily demands. Average demand is somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons per minute, while average pumping capacity is around 4,000 gallons per minute.
The city could even support one large customer, which is expected to be Swire, a Coca-Cola bottler.
Soderberg presented a graph from the city’s 2021 Water System Plan Update to the council, showing that even without additional improvements to the current infrastructure, the city would supply adequate water until 2038.
Conservative projections for Tumwater’s water needs show a different story. Considering greater demand during summer and winter, conservative projections show that the water might be insufficient as soon as 2028, when the Water System Plan projected a large customer would become operational.
While the city could support a large customer based on regular projections, Water Resources Director Dan Smith acknowledged that the current situation does make him nervous during peak seasons.
“The demand projections show that we could actually tolerate two-million-gallons-a-day users coming online,” Smith said.
“Does that make me nervous in the summertime in the middle of a peak demand season? Sure. I get nervous today without those users online,” he added.
Additional water sources are already on the pipeline to increase the city’s supply. Potential sources include the Brewery Wellfield, which Tumwater already has the water rights for, and the pending water rights of NE Wellfield, Lakeland Manor, Doelman property, and two other wells.
In the first phase of the water source development project, Carollo Engineering would reevaluate these existing and additional options and update demand projections before conducting a study assessing service cost.
The project's next phase deals with analyzing these options, while the final phase deals with design and construction.
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GFelsen
Great to see us staying ahead of the game in Tumwater.....and a well written local news article, chock full of information.
Saturday, October 7, 2023 Report this
2theroots
Because of the very things mentioned in this article it is INSANE for the city to consider signing a 75 year lease with Swire which exports our water out of state. If we could have insufficient water as soon as 2028, and this is before climate change really heats up....why on earth would we sign away water rights for that long? Or really sign away any water?
Saturday, October 7, 2023 Report this
Esther
I agree that it is irresponsible for the City to agree to supply water to a foreign international private corporation from our dwindling water supply for 75 years. Who knows what will happen in the next 20 years, let alone 75. Read the League of Women Voters’ new study of Thurston’s water resources. Our water comes solely from rainfall. Rainfall is not going to increase, but population and demand are-by quite a lot. And the rainfall will come in more intense downfalls that don’t have a chance to percolate into the aquifer, especially with more and more asphalt, houses and warehouses from development covering the ground. There are similar stories of local water supplies being privatized by foreign companies around the country. It’s a disturbing trend and one we shouldn’t let ourselves be part of it.
Sunday, October 8, 2023 Report this
BobJacobs
The development of new water supplies to serve new customers is expensive. Current residents and businesses should not be forced to pay this cost. All costs should be borne by those who benefit thru utility connection fees a.k.a. "hookup fees".
How does Tumwater plan to pay for this?
Monday, October 9, 2023 Report this