Major water projects planned for Haleyville

HALEYVILLE - The Haleyville Water Works and Sewer Board approved an application to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for a $3,060,740 loan at its Jan. 25 meeting.
The loan the board is seeking is a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) loan. Funded with both state and federal money and 

managed by ADEM, this fund exists to finance public infrastructure improvements in the state, according to ADEM’s website.
The DWSRF loan, which the board expects to come with at least 50-percent forgiveness of the principal, will be used to fund the installation of a new water main, a new booster station, the rehabilitation of the Kelly Hill and Fontaine water tanks and possibly an additional project on Highway 195, if the entire requested amount is granted.
City Engineer Calvin Cassady said the new water main and booster station are needed because of an increased demand for water in the area around Lakeland Community Hospital. The Haleyville water system has two pressure zones, one that includes the hospital and surrounding area and another one that serves downtown, the schools, South Haleyville and Delmar.
WWSB General Manager Lane Bates later explained that the hospital zone was created with the installation of a new water tank after a third floor was added to the hospital. Before the new tank was added, water could not be pumped to the third floor of the hospital without the existing tanks running over because of an elevation difference of about 100 feet. The WWSB had to create a separate system to capture water from the Upper Bear Creek Water Authority, and pump it to the hospital zone, via a booster station at Kelly Hill, using higher pressure than is necessary to move water in the original zone.
Now, due to growth in the area around the hospital, about 40 percent of the board’s water customers receive their water from the hospital tank, Bates said.
The board needs to keep up with that increased demand in the hospital zone. The hospital tank is relatively small with a 250,000-gallon capacity, Cassady said. That can be compared to the million-gallon combined capacity of the tanks that serve the other 60 percent of customers, Bates later pointed out.
Cassady also noted that the hospital tank can’t be completely filled because of its elevation; before it was full, other tanks located at lower elevations would run over. To build a new, larger tank would cost around $5 million, he noted, so instead, the board plans to install a second, larger water main using 12-inch pipe instead of the 8-inch pipe that was used for the current line.
Further, the PVC pipe used in the current water main was installed in the 1970s and was only intended to last for 20 years, Cassady noted, concluding that while the line hasn’t experienced a lot of breaks yet, it’s going to start to fail eventually.  
The board will also replace the 45-year-old Kelly Hill booster station with a new booster station, which will be outfitted with the more advanced technology available today, including a pump with more horsepower. The new booster station combined with the larger water line will allow for more efficient pumping of water to the higher pressure zone around the hospital.
The current water main that pumps water to the hospital zone, located along 28th Street, Littleville Road and 30th Street, will remain in use, giving the zone a backup, but it will also be fed by the new booster station. The current Kelly Hill booster station will eventually be abandoned.
As part of the new water main installation project, 30th Street will be repaved between its intersection with Newburg Road and the hospital tank after the new pipe is laid. Parts of Newburg Road and 28th Place might also need to be repaved as part of that project.
In a separate project, the Kelly Hill and Fontaine water tanks’ rehabilitations will both include interior weld repairs, new tank mixing systems and containment systems, removing and replacing the interior and exterior coatings and then repainting the logos, as well as some more minor improvements that vary by tank.
Bates said that the Fontaine and Kelly Hill tanks were last painted 22 and 25 years ago respectively, in 1999 and 1996. He also said that a 2017 study and evaluation of the tanks by an outside company had found that they both needed repainting then. “They’re in good shape now,” he said, “but they’re not going to last forever.”
The possible improvements on Highway 195 would include the installation of two fire hydrants, one in front of the Alabamian and one in front of Rowe Building Supply, plus the installation of six-inch water lines between 20th Street and the hydrants.
At the WWSB meeting, the motion to approve the loan application passed unanimously.
If ADEM approves the loan, the board should receive notification that their projects are fundable between April and June, Bates said. However, considering the lengthy bid process that will then have to ensue before the projects are undertaken, it will probably be at least another year after that before the work begins, Bates said.