GREAT VALLEY — A month after the Great Valley Town Board gave the go-ahead for a project to update and improve the water system at the Bonn Val housing area, engineers are ready to finalize specs and go out to bid.
At the town’s June 10 meeting, Derek Rule from MDA Engineers presented to the board the preliminary plans for what the project for Bonne Way East and Bonne Ridge residents would include.
Estimates for the project are around $32,000, Rule said, but an accepted bid would determine the final costs. He said that price includes materials and labor.
According to Rule, MDA researched the different filter technologies to see what would work best, comparing three different options, and found the best option would be splitting the process into two pressure zones: from the wells through the filter to a holding tank, and then another from the holding tank up the hill to the storage tanks.
“It’ll be pre-chlorinated before the filter to oxidize the iron and all the things causing the water quality concerns,” he said. After being filtered and moved into a 300-gallon storage tank, “from there we’d have a second set of pumps that would operate at high pressures, pumping from that storage tank up to the big overall tank that serves the district.”
The existing system operates at about 125 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure, Rule said, which is needed to overcome the elevation difference between the wells and storage tanks at the top of the hill.
“There’s not really anyway of getting around that pressure. We have to produce that much to get the water up to the storage tanks,” he said. Rule said the problem is the filter the system uses is only designed for 100 psi, which is where the water quality problems come from.
According to Rule, in the existing system, even though the filter is rated for the 125 psi pressure, the media tends to break down prematurely at that high of pressure. He said the new system would avoid that, but also require replacing the existing pumps and installing new pumps after the filtration process.
“It keeps the cost in the filter system down, makes it so it can operate at the intended pressures,” he said. “It does increase the overall cost of the system, but what we are looking at is the overall longevity of the equipment and the function of the equipment over time.”
Rule said installing new filters and new piping would help cut down on the corrosion of the equipment. He said the new equipment could all fit in the existing building where the pumps and filters are.
Eric Wohlers, the Cattaraugus County Environmental Health Director, said the new equipment would allow for the system to be flushed only twice a year, which is much less frequent than what has to happen now.
The town board estimates advertising bids for the project after its July meeting and then accepting the bids and awarding the project in August. Rule said everything should be completed by mid-fall, before the snow starts to fly.
Board member Gerald Musall said they need to figure out a timeline so the system isn’t down during a week when there is a large festival in Ellicottville and all the Bonn Val homeowners are staying there.
Rule said it should only take about a month from awarding the contract to start of construction, putting it at mid-September. He said they can figure out when specifically the work should be done to interfere as little as possible with the residents.
Wohlers said depending on the contractor and crew, the project could be done in a day or two. He said the pieces mostly come intact and just have to be put together.
“If they start early in the morning and make sure the reservoir is full, in a few hours they can have all the old equipment out of there and can immediately bring in the new pieces,” Wholers said.
The current equipment has been there for about 20 years and is past its lifespan due to the chlorine exposure in the building and corrosion from the pumps and filters.
According to Rule, the new equipment has a lifespan of 30 years and should last that long thanks to the adjusted pressures and filters being installed.
IN OTHER BUSINESS, the board is planning to have a new roof put on the town hall. Musall said they could order the equipment for the new roof separately and entertain bids for the labor at a later board meeting.
Concerning a potential new playground at the Kill Buck community park, the town missed the deadline to apply for a grant for this year. The deadline for the next round of funding will take place this fall, so the board will look to have something by then.
Later this summer, the second annual Kill Buck Community Picnic will be held at the park, which will be sponsored in part by the town. The town had funding leftover from last year’s Bicentennial events and it was agreed they could use some of that funding to help support the annual picnic as a town event.
The town also mentioned the idea of making a launch site somewhere along the Great Valley Creek for kayaks and canoes and wondered if there was any money in the county budget to support that. The budget talks for the county begin in September, so the town is looking to propose for funds be allocated to help build one before then.
