The current water crisis we are experiencing is not about politics, it is not about blaming past administration, it is not about blaming current administration; it is about gaining an accurate evaluation of the current situation and putting in place the necessary plans going forward that will best prevent this situation in the future.
The water treatment plant (WTP) is located on the east side of town near the airport. An old outdated 8” water line
takes an indirect route from the WTP to the west side of town. The west water tower located near Western/Burr Oak is the only water storage facility on the west side of town. This 8” line was put in place long before the growth on the northwest side occurred and is basically the only water line that connects the treatment plant to the west side of town.
During the hottest times of the year is when we see a significant increase in water usage, mostly due to normal outside watering. The current infrastructure is simply not sufficient to maintain the water in the west tower at optimum levels during this peak usage. This has occurred at varying degrees during the hottest months each summer for the past few years. The WTP has more than enough capacity to provide the volume of water necessary, the choke point is the 8” line to the west water tower that prevents adequate delivery of water to the west water tower during peak demand.
Low levels of water in the west tower result in low water pressure or worst case, no water for residents in the northwest part of Goldsby.
There are two current projects nearing completion that will help in the future to mitigate the problems we are experiencing in the northwest part of town. These projects began construction in late 2022 and early 2023.
1. A booster pump is currently being constructed near Hwy 9/Sante Fe. Construction started in November of 2022. This pump will increase the available water output from the Newcastle water pipeline to approximately 400 gallons per minute (GPM). The town is in discussion with Newcastle to finalize a contract to purchase water from their pipeline; this will help to provide surge capacity during the peak usage periods. This booster pump should be operational by the end of this year. There is currently in place a 12” water line that connects to the Newcastle pipeline at Hwy 9/Sante Fe and runs south along Sante Fe (NW 24th) to Chestnut Road.
2. The second project is installing a 12” water line from this Sante Fe (NW 24th) water line to the west tower. Construction started in June of 2023. This will connect the output from the Newcastle water line and the booster pump to the west tower and the residents in the northwest part of town with a higher volume 12” line. This new 12” line should be completed by the end of this year.
The infrastructure is quite simply not currently in place to provide an adequate water supply at all times to the northwest part of Goldsby. It will take time to build the infrastructure we need. We are making the water infrastructure our #1 priority. We have initiated a thorough evaluation of the current infrastructure and this will determine the next project that we need to get started.
This will give you a quantitative look at the water usage.
Low demand months of November/December - we see an average use of about 11 million gallons of water per month.
High demand months of June/July/August – we see peak demands higher than 17 million gallons of water used per month, that is about a 65% increase in demand to the system due primarily to outside watering.