GCSD Awarded $3.4 Million To Repair Hetch Hetchy Water Disinfectant Tanks
Groveland, CA – A long-awaited $3.4 million grant is earmarked to extend by 20 to 40 years the life of key aging infrastructure at a local community services district.
Groveland Community Services District (GCSD) General Manager Pete Kampa shares that the district received a signed grant agreement for its Clearwell Rehabilitation Project.
The district’s Big Creek and Second Garrotte clearwells are used to provide the necessary contact time for raw water from Hetch Hetchy, the district’s primary source, to be disinfected. Hetch Hetchy water has a filtration avoidance permit due to its naturally pristine condition so disinfection is the only treatment it receives prior to distribution. However, the clearwells, which developed severe internal corrosion, require significant renovation.
Kampa says the project, which involves coating the tanks, will keep them from deteriorating beyond repair or rusting through for another two to four decades. The work will include the removal of the existing epoxy coating and application of a new coating to the steel tank surfaces.
The construction company that is contracted for the project will also perform a condition assessment to determine how many of the interior structural members that need to be replaced. As part of the conditions for the funding, the district is requiring the removal of the existing baffles so the coating can be thoroughly applied to the tanks’ surfaces. The Clearwell Rehabilitation Project plans and specifications are currently being updated so the district can send it out to bid this June.
Kampa shares that the district worked hard to secure grant funding to eliminate the need for water rate increases that would be used specifically to complete the essential work. “If we had to go out and borrow this money, it would have cost $5.77 per month for every customer for 20 years; and the grant reduced the monthly customer cost to $0,” he adds.
Project funding has been provided in full or in part under the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resiliency (SAFER) Drinking Water Program and Proposition 68 through an agreement with the State Water Resources Control Board.
