Milk Ranch Well not needed for projected demand

WATER

FOR PINE

STRAWBERRY

UPDATE

(The following is provided on behalf of Water for Pine Strawberry by an anonymous individual whose name cannot be associated with the Gazette or the Roundup won't print his or her letters.)

Several times during the Pine Strawberry Water Improvement District (PSWID) meetings, Mr. Gary Lovetro has stated that both the Strawberry Hollow and Milk Ranch wells are needed to get us through the next couple of years. I took a look at the numbers that are available and below is an outline of a rough estimate of the kind of capacity needed to cover the summer months and a look at the capacity that is available. The detailed spreadsheet can be found here: http://www.waterforpinestrawberry.com/data%20pages/BudgetDocs.htm

The conclusion is that the addition of the Strawberry Hollow well is enough to cover the communities water needs for a couple of years. The addition of an agreement with Portals IV for water sharing should cement that coverage.

The board is waiting to do a master plan for the water system until after they have spent all the money. Part of their rationale is that there is no time to lose in adding the Milk Ranch well capacity. This shows that they have time to prepare a master plan for the system so that the money is spent to the best value for the community.

To determine what capacity there needs to be in the system, I looked at the usage during the summer months for 2005, 2006, and 2007. From that, June 2006 was the highest usage month at 233.5 gpm. Adjusting that for an estimated water loss rate of 15% and an additional 10% for error margin, the capacity needed to meet a peak month would be 291.9 gpm.

Another factor that needs to be accounted for is the growth in usage by Pine residents in response to the lifting of usage restrictions. In that June 2006 month, the average user in Pine used 3,011 gallons and the average user in Strawberry used 3,762 gallons.

Since Strawberry had no restrictions at that time, the assumption is being made that over time the usage by Pine residents will rise to match the usage by Strawberry residents. That assumption results in the need for an additional 40.5 gpm of additional capacity.

So the capacity required to meet a worst-case summer month would be 332.4 gpm.

I attended the RFP meeting for the operations management companies and a handout was provided that listed the capacity of the PSWID owned and Water Sharing Agreement (WSA) wells. Adding the Strawberry Hollow well to that list produced the following capacity numbers:
PWSID Owned Capacity: 255.5 gpm (55.7%)
WSA Capacity: 203 gpm (44.3%)
Total Capacity: 458.5 gpm

These capacity numbers may not be sustainable under constant pumping, so allowing time for maintenance and “resting” wells, the assumption is being made that, on average, only 75% of that capacity is available. That brings the system capacity down to 343.9 gpm, which is above the capacity needed. Without the Strawberry Hollow well, the system capacity is 323.6 gpm.

Adding a water sharing agreement with Portals IV, which based on discussions looks like a source for at least 20-30 gpm, would probably get us a couple years down the road before significant additional water resources would need to be added. This would allow the board time to make a plan before spending large sums of money.

In the long run that plan needs to address several things:

What is the expected growth going to be in the area? This will allow for the projection of water demand into the future, and from that the capacity needed in the system.

Increasing the percentage of the capacity that is PSWID owned. Probably want to get to 80% or more and have the WSAs fill the role of handling peak/non-typical demand.

Removing the need to transfer water from one community to the other. One of the positive aspects of the addition of the Strawberry Hollow well is that its output can replace the water being transferred from Strawberry to Pine. This removes the expense of pumping the water to Pine and has a net affect of making more water available to both communities. On the other hand, with the Milk Ranch well it will be expensive to pump the water up the hill to Strawberry, so for the most part the Milk Ranch well will have no benefit to Strawberry.

This update is from the group Water For Pine Strawberry.  Updates on earlier meetings are available on our website: www.WaterForPineStrawberry.com .

Water For Pine Strawberry is a group of residents who are concerned about the communities water issues and how they can best be resolved. Visit our web site, www.WaterForPineStrawberry.com, for more information. The website for PSWID is www.pswid.org .

Clarifications can be submitted by anyone who is explicitly named, implicitly identifiable, or a board member to items in this email. Clarifications will be posted on our website. We reserve the right to post a response. Clarifications must deal with the topics discussed in the update that relate to the individual or the board. They must be in family friendly language and be non-abusive. When the clarification is accepted, it will be posted to the website and notice of that posting will be added to the next update.