Clearing the air
New sewer line on tap for El Prado Estates
It happened at the “speed of government,” as Vice Chairman Russell McCloud put it, but after years of trying to find a solution for a “stinky” problem in El Prado Estates, it seems that construction of a main sewer line will finally happen.
The $1.21 million tab is being picked up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service.
“It’s a great achievement when you get the federal government to pay for everything,” Chairman Tony Reyes noted.
Acting as the board of directors for the El Prado Estates Improvement District, the Yuma County supervisors adopted a resolution declaring its intention to construct the sewer line. The federal grant will cover the cost of the new 1.5-mile, 3-inch diameter force main that will connect to the lift station at The Terraces.
The county anticipates that this will reduce annual operation and maintenance costs to the residents, reduce emergency failure costs that continue to plague the district, simplify operations with a single-user force main and improve relations with the city of Yuma, according to a staff report.
The engineering design of the proposed new force main is currently under review with Rural Development and expected to go to bid by the end of August. Construction is anticipated for the end of the year or beginning of 2018.
At the recommendation
of Gust Rosenfeld, the district’s legal counsel, a new resolution was prepared to reserve the district’s rights in the event that the total amount of the grant is insufficient to complete the work.
The district is located in the area of Highway 95 and Araby Road and includes El Prado Mobile Home Park and the Sierra Pacific Mobile Home Park. The district owns and operates a joint-use force main from the El Prado Pump Station and the Sierra Pacific Pump Station. The force main is a 6-inch diameter pipeline that is about 19,000 feet long.
The county has been dealing with a stinky problem in the area for years. A pipeline originally discharged to a manhole at the top of the bluff on East 16th Street, just inside the city. In 2005 the city constructed a new manhole for the pipeline connection at the bottom of the bluff, just south of 16th Street on Pacific Avenue.
After receiving odor complaints in the area in the spring of 2007, the city started monitoring hydrogen sulfide gas emissions. The city discovered that sewage discharge from the pipeline was generating excessive hydrogen sulfide in the city’s wastewater collection system.
The city asked El Prado and Sierra Pacific to come up with a permanent solution or they could face prosecution under the city’s industrial pre-treatment ordinance, staff said.
Numerous meetings were held among the district, the district’s engineer, mobile home park representatives and the city.
Stantec Consulting prepared a study in 2008 to evaluate various options. The city conducted various chemical pilot studies to determine the most appropriate method for reducing the hydrogen sulfide concentrations.
Subsequently, all parties compromised on construction of a ferrous chloride chemical feed injection system, and USDA Rural Development agreed to fund it since the cost to the mobile home parks would have been “astronomical.”
However, in 2013, the supervisors learned they would receive a $1.21 million grant from Rural Development for construction of the new force main, replacing the previous plan for construction of a chemical feed injection system.