Rehabilitation of water wells underway

The city of Blaine is in the process of rehabilitating its water wells, which will help ensure that the city is prepared for hot, dry weather in the summertime.

The city’s wells provide all of the city’s water needs, including tap water, drinking water, water for irrigation and water to put out fires. Unlike other cities which rely on water treated at water treatment plants, the city of Blaine is supplied by groundwater that comes from a variety of aquifers, depths and locations. It requires only a trace amount of chlorine for treatment, since the city does not have to worry about the pollutants that could exist with surface water sources.

“We are quite unique,” said Blaine public works director Ravyn Whitewolf. “I think it really speaks a lot to environmental stewardship and to buying a large amount of land that protects and sustains that source.”

The city has a total of 14 water wells, the majority of which are located in the city’s wellfield on Pipeline Road. Two others are located in Lincoln Park, and there is another one on 12th Street. Some of the wells were drilled in the 1990s, while others date back to the 1970s and earlier. Not all of the wells are active.

Overall, the city is in good shape from a water perspective. “Blaine has adequate water rights and infrastructure for our community, and we also serve the Birch Bay community through a wholesale contract,” said Whitewolf. However, the public works department decided to embark on this maintenance project in order to ensure that the wells remain in good shape as they continue to age.

“Water is a vital resource,” said Whitewolf. “Summers continue to be hotter and dryer, putting a lot more demand on that resource.” She noted that while the city had adequate water last summer, “it was tighter than what we thought was necessary. We wanted to make sure that this summer we didn’t have a problem.”

The maintenance project is taking place in phases, and will help boost the overall capacity of the city’s wells. In the current phase, work is taking place on two wells, whose pumps were recently removed and inspected.

According to Whitewolf, the wiring of the pumps does not meet current specifications, and both pump motors needed to be replaced. Because the pumps will be set to new elevations when they are reinstalled, the piping also needs to be extended. On one of the wells, the piping has to be replaced because of its degraded condition.

These issues were discovered after rehabilitation work had already started, forcing the city to modify its contract with Holt Drilling, the contractor doing the work. To pay for the extra work, approximately $128,000 had to be added to the contract price, resulting in a total adjusted contract price of about $191,000. “While the extent of this change order exceeds a typical percentage over the contract price, the prices quoted have been carefully reviewed by our consultants,” noted the request for council action prepared by Whitewolf for the May 13 city council meeting.

Because the initial contract price was increased by more than 20 percent of the contract amount, city policy required that the change order be brought before city council. The change order was presented to city council on May 13 and was approved unanimously by councilmembers.

The project is being paid for out of the city’s water capital fund. In general, the money that is used for any particular utility is generated by that utility. In the case of water, the city has a water capital fund and a water operations fund. The water capital fund is what pays for larger projects such as this, whereas the operations fund pays for day-to-day operations and smaller projects. Connection fees called general facility fees contribute to the water capital fund, and are generated when new customers connect to the utility.

In the long term, the city of Blaine is looking at more options for the storage of groundwater, which would further reduce strain on the city’s water wells. “In addition to making sure the wells are operating as efficiently as possible, we are also making sure we have adequate storage,” said Whitewolf. The city currently has a storage tank in its wellfield. There are also storage tanks in Semiahmoo, Lincoln Park, on Harvey Hill and on E Street.

Finally, the city has been cycling through its different wells, giving some a chance to rest while the others supply groundwater to the city. “We cycle the different wells, so that if one is drying at one level of the aquifer, we let that aquifer recharge,” explained Whitewolf. “While that’s recharging, we operate a different well, at a different hydraulic grade line, so it’s not soaking up all of that resource.”

The overall goal is to ensure that the wells are operated sustainably and are there for many generations to come. “We want to ensure that these wells have a long life and we’re not putting an undue strain on them,” said Whitewolf.