VVWD Approves Equipment For New Treatment Plant

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Virgin Valley Water District (VVWD) Board of Trustees approved a major purchase of arsenic treatment pressure vessels during a meeting held on Tuesday, Jan. 4. It was a $690,000 expenditure that was not expected just a few months ago. But the project also comes with a significant silver lining for the community.

In a brief explanation to the board, VVWD Engineer Steve Hall, said that the pressure vessels were needed to accommodate the district’s newest production well sites: Well 35 and Well 36.

To be in compliance with federal clean water regulations, an arsenic treatment plant was designed with ample capacity to treat water from the wells.

Three treatment vessels were ordered in August of 2020 in preparation for Well 35 at an expected 1,500 gallons per minute (gpm) of flow, Hall said. These three vessels were purchased at a cost of $642,794.
Hall explained that Well 36 wasn’t expected to be drilled until somewhat later. But within a couple of months, it was moved up on the district’s priority list. So another three vessels were ordered in November of 2020 at a cost of $561,140. These would be installed in the same plant facility giving it a treatment capacity of about 3,000 gpm, Hall said.

Since then both wells have been drilled and it turns out they have produced much more water than expected, Hall said.
“We have drilled both wells and they are producing more like 4500 gallons per minute,” Hall said. “So that has required an additional three vessels with a total of nine vessels in the plant.”

Having the wells and the treatment plant producing so much more than expected provides a bit of a windfall for the district as more treatment capacity can be added to the same facility.
“We are getting a nice bang for our buck with this, having all of that in one treatment plant,” Hall said. “The downside is that we need three more vessels.

Hall explained that the significantly higher cost of the three additional vessels was due to a global price increase in the cost of steel.
“Cost of steel has gone through the roof,” Hall said. “So we have looked closely at it and we feel comfortable with their numbers that they have per vessel.”

VVWD Board members expressed enthusiasm at the higher flows seen on the new wells and the savings that the new plant would bring.
“We are very fortunate, right after drilling Well 34 that didn’t pan out at all, that our next two wells exceeded what we were expecting by so much,” said VVWD Board Chairman Ben Davis.

Davis added that the higher costs on the equipment should come as no surprise.
“I would have been shocked if there had not been a price increase on these vessels since the original vessels were purchased,” Davis said. “I mean there isn’t anything right now that isn’t going up at a pretty quick rate.”
Davis made a motion to approve the purchase and it was adopted with a unanimous vote.

In another agenda item, the board unanimously approved expenditures for an asphalt patch to repair road damage done by a 16-inch water main break which occurred on Dec. 2, 2021 at Flat Top Mesa Drive near Ox Bow Bend.

The board ratified approval of the project contracted with Legacy Construction for an amount not to exceed $135,000.

Finally, the board unanimously approved an amendment to VVWD policy to allow for audio recordings of district board meetings to be retained for only a period of one year in accordance with the Nevada Revised Statute. Before that time, the district had elected to retain those sound recordings on file for a period of three years.