For many months out of the year, the Town of Garden City is a quiet secluded resort town with less than 500 full-time residents. It is located along the shores of beautiful Bear Lake, the “Caribbean of the Rockies”. During the summer months though, this resort town sees tens of thousands of visitors that come to enjoy the many outdoor recreational opportunities that exist in the Bear Lake Valley.
A culinary water master planning process was recently completed that was intended to address the issues that come with supplying the great demand that tens of thousands of vacationers put on the existing culinary water system. Through this planning process the following items were found to be necessary improvements to the culinary water system:
- Purchase an existing developer built and maintained 1.0 MG storage tank
- Upgrade two existing Booster Pump Stations (BPS)
- Construct six new Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) stations
- Convert an existing BPS to a PRV station
- Construct over 5,000 feet of new waterline to complete looping and connect previously independent pressure zones
- Replace over 3,000 feet of aging and deteriorating 24” transmission line
- Install SCADA at all the new and existing water system components to improve operations
In order to complete the improvements outlined above, over $4.5 million in USDA funding was obtained. Approximately 27% of that total funding package was provided in a grant while the remaining was a USDA-Rural Development (RD) loan.
The purchase of the 1.0 MG tank was needed to provide additional storage to the town. The purchase of the tank, also made it possible to serve more residents with new pipes, interconnection of systems, and the construction of six new PRVs. This allowed an area of town to be served from the newly purchased storage tank, which then took that burden off other areas of the system and improved overall operations in that area of the system.
Two existing BPS that filled the existing 1.0 MG storage tank were equipped with small 5 hP pumps. Each of these BPS was upgraded with new piping and pumps to plan for future growth while improving the existing operations of the system. The 5 hP pumps were still utilized to handle small flows, but new 30 hP and 50 hP pumps were installed to provide peak day flows that occur during the peak vacation season.
A large portion of the aging, existing 24” ductile iron transmission line that flows from the town’s culinary treatment plant was re-routed and replaced with new PVC piping. The existing transmission line traveled diagonally under Swan Creek and experienced significant leaking. The new alignment moved the transmission line into a more accessible right-of-way, limited the length of the Swan Creek crossing, and provided significant water savings to the Town.
Operational controls, SCADA, were installed to improve efficiency and allow the Town to operate the water system more effectively. Overall, the current culinary water system is now prepared to serve residents and vacationers for many years.
