Key Points:
- Only minor work remains before the completion of the new well.
- The DEP will then do an onsite inspection and send water samples to a State lab which will take about 60+ days
- We expect the new well to be connected to our water system around the end of January.
- The community approved at the last annual meeting an expenditure of $75,000 for the new well based on preliminary estimates. The actual cost solely for drilling the new well will be about $82,000 when all the bills are in.
- Additional costs of about $100,000 were incurred due to DEP requirements under new regulations adopted about 12 months ago. As a condition of drilling a new well, the DEP required the submission of extensive documentation and required that our system be brought up to the new code standards.
- The details of this project are extensively discussed in the balance of this document.
Full Discussion of the Drilling of the New Well and the Required Upgrades to our Water System
The new well (#4) above the tennis court parking lot is virtually completed. The only material remaining construction task is to install a permanent barrier around the well to prevent a car or plow from hitting it. We have filed all the final paperwork with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The next step is for the DEP to do an inspection to ascertain that all elements in our construction documents were completed. At this inspection, the DEP will take a water sample and send it to a State lab for evaluation. This testing by the State lab may take as much as two months. (Agra, our licensed operator, can generally do such tests in less than a week.)
Lakeshore does not thus expect to receive DEP approval for connecting the new well until late January.
The cost of the entire project involving our water system is anticipated to be approximately $177,000. Please see table 1 for a break down of these expenses. (All the final bills have not yet been received for items such as electrical, computer programming, final tests and engineering costs to submit the final DEP paperwork.)
The community approved at our annual meeting an expenditure of $75,000 to drill a new well and to connect it into pump house 1 below the tennis court. The cost to drill the new well and connect it into the pump house is anticipated to be about $82,000 when all the final bills are received. Table 2 outlines the costs for drilling the well.
Expenses Associated with the Cost Overrun
Consulting and Engineering $30,800
Permits and Surveys $ 4,800
5 Minute Contact Time $36,300
Upgrade Pump House 1 # $ 5,000
Testing Wells 2&3/Replacing pump&pipe well 3 $18,400
Camera Survey wells 2&3 $ 5,100
Total Unanticipated Added Costs $100,400
# This $5,000 cost for upgrading pump house 1 is included in the cost of the new well (Table 2)
When the original projection of $75,000 was made, we were not anticipating all these additional costs. Consulting and engineering expenses needed to address issues raised by the DEP and to file a voluminous number of forms were $30,800. Permits from the government and related surveys amounted to $4,800. The DEP required us to install 100 feet of 12-inch pipe underground in front of the playground swing set to achieve 5-minutes of contact time from when the well water was chlorinated until it was sent into the distribution system. This underground piping is adjacent to pump house 1. The cost for this piping was $36,300 (see table 3). The DEP also required that most of the components of the water system in pump house 1 be modified to meet the current code for an estimated cost of $5,000 which cost is included in the cost to drill the new well (Table 2). Testing wells 2 & 3 to ascertain if they could be used in the future and installing a new pump in well 3 including new piping amounted to $23,500. It was necessary to use well 3 while pump house 1 and well 1 were out of service during the upgrading of the piping in pump house 1 including the connection of the new well into this pump house.
The DEP adopted new regulations about one year ago. Our contractors felt that the new regulations were written after the Flint, Michigan lead issues and are probably in response to the criticisms that the regulators received in that state. These regulations involved new procedures for our contractors. All our contractors were astounded at all the actions required to be performed by the Lake.
In effect, a very substantial part of the additional expense was generated by the DEP’s requirements that we upgrade the current system to current code as part of the permit to drill a new well. In addition to the above explicitly identified costs, Highland Water, our prime contractor, incurred more than expected labor and material expenses to address the stringent DEP requirements.
The future role of wells 2 and 3 is under continuing review. Both of these wells are connected to pump house 2 which is on Lake Trail East. The expense of approximately $23,500 was associated with the efforts to ascertain whether well 2, which had contamination issues, could be returned to service and whether well 3 could be used in the future. This work provided input into the decision to drill a new well. Well 3 has not been used in many years since it only generated 28 gallons per minute which is insufficient to support the entire community for an extended period, but which would be a very valuable backup well. Our permit with the DEP allows us to drill well 3 deeper within about the next 4.5 years in order to generate more water. Given our experience with the new well, deepening well 3 from about 220 feet to about 400 feet could materially enhance output. The new well had very little water flow until its depth reached 390 feet. The new well’s output was prolific at 390 feet. If we drill well 3 deeper, it will be necessary to install 5-minute contact piping for pump house 2 and to upgrade this pump house. We continue to explore with the DEP what options are available to bring well 2 back on line, but the options including enhanced treatment methods would be expensive. Relying on well 1 as a permanent back up to the new well is not attractive given that the well was drilled around 1928, the well casing is fairly shallow, well casings rust and the well is next to a stream which could impact the well in the future.
Resolution of the use of wells 2 & 3 will be addressed in the future when more funding is available, but a long term strategy will be developed in the interim.
Table 1
Total Costs for the Water System Projects
EWMA (1) $13,600
E&LP (2) $17,200
Permits and Surveys $4,800
Costs for the New Well (3) $81,800
Evaluating wells 2&3;new pump&pipe well 3 $18,400
Camera Survey Wells 2&3 $5,100
Cost for 5 Minute Contact Time (4) $36,300
Total Estimated Expenses $177,200
Footnotes to Table 1
1.Hiring a hydrogeological firm EWMA to analyze wells 2&3 to ascertain whether they could be used, file some initial forms, and to recommend a site for the new well
2. Hiring a specialized engineering firm (E&LP) to fill out more than 10 very detailed forms and provide an engineering certification. These forms were very complex and required considerable expertise.
3. See table 2
4. Bury 100 feet of 12-inch pipe in front of the swing set to provide 5 minutes of contact time for water to be impacted by chlorine before it is put into the system.
Table 2
Direct Costs to Drill the New Well/Upgrade Pump House
Drilling Cost $16,000
Excavation Cost for the Underground pipes $6,000
Labor for piping/upgrades pump house $12,500
Pipes, valves, pumps, etc. $37,300
Total Billed Costs for the New Well $71,800
Total Unbilled Costs Conservative $10,000
Total Projected Cost $81,800
Table 3
Cost of the 5 Minute Contact Time
Excavation $8,300
12 Inch Piping $22,400
Labor $5,600
Total Costs $36,300
Submitted by Rick Barrett