Oskaloosa Water Towers To Get Fresh Coat Of Paint
Oskaloosa’s North water tower was installed in 1932 and holds 400,000 gallons of water.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Water Board of Trustees heard information about having the two water towers cleaned and painted.
The coatings will be applied not only to the exterior but also the interior of the structures, with frost plugs being checked and replaced as needed.
Oskaloosa Water General Manager Chad Coon also outlined a plan to install a mixer to the south water tower. “The south tower doesn’t see much fluctuation with tower levels due to a difference in altitude between the north and south towers. The south tower is 10 foot lower in elevation than the north tower.
The north tower can see a water elevation change of 20 foot during a day; the south tower may only see a 10-foot drop in water elevation.
The water age in the south tower is increased over the north tower and becomes thermally stratified. “It doesn’t mix through, and we start to see an increase in disinfection byproducts,” explained Coon.
“So if we can add one of these units [mixer], we remove, to a large degree, the thermal stratification. We keep that water age lower, so as the new water comes in it’s mixing clear up to the top, and the old stuff is coming back down into the system. We also lower the occurrence of disinfection byproducts,” added Coon.
Bids for the mixer and installation will be going out soon, with an estimated cost of $20,000.
When it comes to painting the water towers, the exterior will be power washed to prep the surface, while the interior of the towers will be taken down to bare metal before being recoated.
The cost for the painting of the towers is estimated to be approximately $500,000.00 for both towers, and work would most likely start in the spring of 2018.
The north tower is the older of the two towers. It was installed in 1932 and holds 400,000 gallons. The south tower was then installed in 1950 and holds 500,000 gallons.
Coon updated the board about current wastewater operations. Among those notes was an update on the progress on the city’s sanitary sewer pipes. Coon informed the board that wastewater staff has televised 15,429 feet of sanitary sewer, and root cut 3,203 foot of sanitary sewer pipe.
Much of the sanitary sewer inspected since the last update has also been jetted to remove debris. Between jetting and root cutting operations, 30,000 gallons of water has been used to perform those operations.
Coon said that wastewater made two sewer taps this past month for new construction, fixed a sewer main next to Fareway, and filled a sink hole.
The green grass at Edmundson Golf Course is due, in large part, to effluent water to the course. “We pumped 7,213,000 gallons to Edmundson in July.”
So much water was being piped to the course, that “we weren’t getting any of the outfall at the creek,” said Coon.
All of that cleaned wastewater is paid for by the course in an agreement with the city.
The board also approved a resolution for Home Base Iowa and a deposit waiver for veterans.
Coon also spoke about calls he is receiving from customers outside the city limits, “requesting that we allow them to be dropped as OMWD customers so that they can pick up Mahaska Rural Water (MRW) due to our pricing strategy.”
No action was taken on that discussion at this time.
