BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

The monthly Board meeting is this Wednesday, 6:00 PM, July 28, 2021, held at the Fire Station at 7739 E. Sunnyside Rd.  The agenda is available under Pages and then click on Board Meeting Agendas.  As a reminder, all Board meetings are open to the Public.

Repair of Damaged Valve on Goldrush

District personnel will be replacing a damaged valve on Goldrush in the Bonanza area today.  Patrons on Goldrush, S Cody, Buckboard, and Wagon Wheel will experience water service interruption while the work is being done, beginning at approximately 12:30 PM.  ETR (Estimated Time of Restoration) is 6:00 PM this evening.

Thank you for your patience.

Leak on Goldrush

UPDATE:  ETR is now 8:00 PM, two hours later than first estimate.  Thank you for your patience.

District personnel are responding to a sizeable leak on Goldrush in the Bonanza area of the District.  In order to isolate it to repair, Patrons on Goldrush, Bonanza, Dillon, Cody, Silver and possibly Wagon Wheel will all be affected.  ETR (Estimated Time to Restoration) is 6:00 PM this evening.

Special Board of Directors Meeting, Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 10:30 AM

The KCWD#1 Board of Directors will hold a Special Meeting Wednesday July 21, 2021 beginning 10:30 AM at 7739 E. Sunnyside Rd.  The agenda can be viewed on the Meeting Agendas page.

Update Monday, July 19th

The reservoir was at eight (8) feet this morning at 8:00 AM.  Much better than we have done in the past two months on Mondays, even though the 40 HP pump is leaking.  RC Worst is working on getting the replacement seal so that they can come out and repair as soon as possible.

Please keep up with the water conservation measures.  It is working!

District crew out working on a leak on Little Joe in the Bonanza area.

FULL RESERVOIR!

Thanks to everyone for turning off your sprinkler timers!  We had a full reservoir as of 7:00 AM this morning.  At this time we can return to our Water Conservation measures as follows:

MANDATORY EMERGENCY WATER CONSERVATION MEASURES:

OUTSIDE WATERING: All Patrons are to MINIMALLY water on an odd/even schedule, with no watering on the 31^st of a month. Addresses ending in odd numbers water on odd dates, even numbers water on even dates.  If you can water less frequently, please do so. Very green grass means too much water use. Please stagger watering times on your assigned dates with half in the morning, and half at night or alternate watering times from morning to evening.

ADDITIONAL REDUCTION MEASURES:

In addition to the above, please use all means to reduce overall water use, such as:

v Try collecting grey water and use it for your garden needs (e.g., spring water collecting under your home, dish water, etc.).

v Turn off water fountains and features that require water replenishment.

v Take shorter showers, not baths.

v Fully load dishwashers and washers and use shortest settings.

v Put covers on pools and spas (or any sizeable water container) when not in use to reduce evaporation.

v Do not run sink water when doing dishes, brushing teeth, shaving, etc.

v No car washing, power washing, or other elective water use.

v Fix leaks, broken/misdirected sprinklers.

Update Saturday, July 17th, Evening

The reservoir was between five (5) and six (6) feet around 6:00 PM this evening.  Assuming that all Patrons have turned off all outside watering timers, and their systems do not come on in the early morning hours, we should have a full reservoir by 5:00 AM.  If the reservoir is depleted, we will need to extend the suspension of outside watering.  Please cooperate so that we can relax these restrictions for the whole community!

The work on the Control System began today, as confidence in the PLC operating the pumps correctly is not high.  The new PLC is not operational yet, but it has been installed and some early debugging and testing was done.  We are hoping to have the majority of the work done on Monday as planned.  In the meantime, we have some of the pumps on automatic control, but will continue to verify that they are operating correctly via the Control System and steadily replenishing the reservoir to meet demand.

Thank you.

Water Emergency Update, Saturday, July 17th

AM Update:  The Reservoir was between 5 and 6 feet at midnight, and dropped back down to between 1 and two feet this morning at 7:00 AM.  This is causing pressure drops and loss of water service to some of the community!

PLEASE TURN OFF ALL AUTOMATIC WATERING TIMERS AND NO OUTSIDE WATERING UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! 

ESSENTIAL HOUSEHOLD USE ONLY!

The longer that some members of the community continue to ignore the District's requests for conserving water, the longer it will take to recover the system and lift water use restrictions.  Do your part.  

UPDATE: 40 HP BACK ONLINE

PLEASE IMPLEMENT EXTREME WATER CONSERVATION UNTIL WE CAN RECOVER RESERVOIR!

NO OUTSIDE WATERING UNTIL DISTRICT NOTIFICATION THAT WE HAVE RECOVERED AND ABLE TO MEET DEMAND! 

Good news!  RC Worst was able to get 40 HP pump back up working.  We have a leaky seal, but we can run until they get the new seal and replace it next week.  We have both the 40 and 20 HP online and they are pumping at maximum capacity, but it will take at least 18-24 hours to recover the reservoir even with everyone using as little water as they can.  

Thank you for your cooperation, and let your neighbors know what is going on if they have not heard.

Loss of 40 HP Pump

PLEASE STOP ALL WATER USE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

We lost the 40 HP pump at approximately 4:54 PM.  We are pumping with the 20 HP, but as you all know, it cannot keep up with any kind of demand approaching normal use.  Could not get the 40 HP pump restarted and we now have RC Worst onsite evaluating if they can get it started again.

Will be initiating an automated call in addition to this notice.

Thursday, July 15th, Evening Report

The reservoir level this morning was approximately half at 7.1 feet, not as high as yesterday, but much better than previous weeks.  We believe that the conservation efforts are working, but there are still a few Patrons who need to review their landscape watering, as they are affecting their neighbors at higher elevations.

The leak on Mullan Trail has been repaired, and the isolation valves have been re-opened.  Patrons in the Forest Lake development, and others, whose service is provided by the Shiras and Mullan Trail Mains loop should see an improvement in water pressures.

Thank you to everyone for cooperating with the detour while the Mullan Trail main was being repaired.  We are not quite finished with that repair as we must repave the road there.  It has been difficult to find an available paving company for this relatively small piece of work, and we are fortunate to have a Patron in this business here in the District.  He will be able to do the repaving sometime next week.  In the meantime, please slow down as you drive over the gravel patch to minimize the need for reworking the area that must be repaved.

The Control system is still exhibiting some abnormal behavior, so Water District personnel will be closely monitoring through the weekend to manually ensure that the system is consistently and optimally producing water.  Monday we hope to begin work on installing the new PLC's and testing the programming logic.

Wednesday, July 14th, Evening Update

To All Patrons,

Please keep up the good work on the water conservation!  For the first time in months, we started the day with a double digit level in the reservoir at 10.1 feet!  For the first time in weeks, some of the Patrons at higher elevations in Grouse Meadows did not lose there water pressure completely in the morning!

Work was started on the repair of the six (6) inch main on Mullan Trail early this morning. Still awaiting an update on that progress, and will report when I get it.  Thank you all for your patience and cooperation with the detours around this work area starting early this morning.

In other news, the Board will be meeting with DEQ and our engineering firm next week (time and date still to be finalized) to discuss kicking off a project to add a redundant 40 HP pump in the main pump house to reduce our risk of catastrophic failure of the existing old pump, while bringing on line a more reliable, more efficient new pump.  Will report on project progress on this blog.

We are also in the process of upgrading our Control System as we have seen some hiccups with the controls in the last month that have also contributed to some of our reservoir replenishment issues.  The upgrade includes remote monitoring, troubleshooting, and controls, instead of our current outdated capability of only being able to react to low water level alarms.

Thank you again to the whole KCWD#1 community for implementing the Water Conservation Measures!

Information Distributed To All Patrons

If you have not checked yet, there is a notice that was hung outside your mailbox this morning by some District volunteers.  A big THANK YOU to all nine of them for helping to get this important information out to the KCWD#1 community!

If you look to the upper right hand side of this blog Home page, you will see three new pages with additional important information including the Mandatory Water Conservation Measures that were included in the notice that was distributed this morning.  Check back to this page periodically as we will update if these measures change.

The second new page is a status page for the Plan to fix our Water System.  We will be updating this page regularly so that Patrons can track progress on the work being done.

There is also an updated page listing some Water Saving Tips.  If you have more ideas, please email them to custserv.kcwd1@gmail.com so that we can add to the list on this blog to share with the community.

Thank you.

 

Update Tuesday Morning

There was a large draw down through the night and early morning leaving the reservoir at around five (5) feet this morning from our reported 11.5 feet last night. 

A reminder:

DETOURS ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 14TH:

The current plan is to begin repair work very early in the morning on Wednesday.  Mullan Trail Rd. will be closed at Sunnyside at about 5:30 AM on Wednesday, so please use Sunnyside to Lake Shore to Sherman to access Hwy 90.  If you are going east on Mullan Trail Rd. to get to Sunnyside, please detour through Tumble Creek Rd. to Shiras to get around the closure on lower Mullan Trail Rd. The repair is estimated to take most of the day and into the evening, and final restoration work on the road may happen over a few days.

Update Monday 9:00 PM

The reservoir this evening reached 11.4 feet, the first time in many days that we have been able to recover to a double digit level.  Please keep up the water conservation and the odd/even date watering to continue this trend.

We were not able to complete the coordination with Eastside Highway early enough today to begin the repair work to the broken main on the lower section of Mullan Trail Rd. as we had hoped.

DETOURS ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 14TH:

The current plan is to begin repair work very early in the morning on Wednesday.  Mullan Trail Rd. will be closed at Sunnyside at about 5:30 AM on Wednesday, so please use Sunnyside to Lake Shore to Sherman to access Hwy 90.  If you are going east on Mullan Trail Rd. to get to Sunnyside, please detour through Tumble Creek Rd. to Shiras to get around the closure on lower Mullan Trail Rd. The repair is estimated to take most of the day and into the evening, and final restoration work on the road may happen over a few days.

Update Sunday 9:00 PM - Repair work may begin Monday

To All Patrons:

As of 6:00 PM, the reservoir was holding at around 5 feet, ~1/3 full, even after opening the isolation valve for the Patrons on Mullan Trail Rd.  We have not been able to increase above that level all day.  We are hoping that we can see an increase overnight as Patrons continue to conserve water use and minimize outside watering.  JD Owen will head down to the plant around midnight to monitor that all is operating as expected.

The District will attempt to coordinate with Eastside Highway District early tomorrow morning, and the tentative plan is to begin digging tomorrow, Monday, to uncover and then repair the leak.  Please expect that lower Mullan Trail Rd. will be closed to through traffic tomorrow around 9:00 AM until sometime in the evening.  Please use Sunnyside to Lakeshore, and Tumble Creek to Sunnyside as alternate routes around the work area.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Update Sunday 1:30 PM

To all Patrons:

The reservoir has dropped to five (5) feet after allowing the resumption of restricted water use.  Patrons at the higher elevations and Grouse Meadows are being affected, both by the isolation valve being opened this morning for the four Patrons along the leaking Mullan Trail Rd. main, and Patrons' use of water at lower elevations.

PLEASE TRY TO LOWER YOUR HOUSEHOLD WATER USE FOR ESSENTIAL NEEDS ONLY TO ENABLE THE SYSTEM TO PROVIDE WATER FOR ALL OF THE COMMUNITY!  EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!

WE ARE MANUALLY OPTIMIZING FLOW RATES AT ALL STAGES OF WATER PROCESSING, AND THE OPERATION OF THE VARIOUS PUMPS, TO MAXIMIZE PRODUCTION, BUT WE ARE STILL STRUGGLING TO STAY AHEAD OF DEMAND!

Update on System Status Sunday, July 11, 2021 AM

To all Patrons:

We have isolated a significant break in the six (6) inch Main on the lower part of Mullan Trail Rd. which was having a significant impact on the nightly depletion of the reservoir.  The isolation of this part of the Distribution system is affecting four (4) Patrons who are now being allocated water for a few hours in the morning and evening when one of the isolation valves is opened by the Water Operator.  During the time that the valve is open, the leak is active, but we are trying to ease the burden on these Patrons as much as we can until the main is fixed.  We thank them for their very gracious cooperation and understanding.

Repairing the break is going to require coordination with the Eastside Highway District, as lower Mullan Trail Rd. will have to be closed while active work is going on.  Because of the complexity, the District will also be using an outside contractor to do the repair work.  We expect to start this coordination, planning, and repair process on Monday.

The reservoir was at slightly over eight (8) feet yesterday evening around 9:00 PM, and we were hopeful that it would be full, or very nearly full, this morning (14.5 ft is full).  We were disappointed that we were actually at around seven (7) feet this morning, and as we had been steadily recovering since we isolated the leak in the late afternoon yesterday, we can only assume (and observed) that a number of Patrons decided to turn their outside watering back on before the notice to resume.

AT THIS TIME WE ARE PROCEEDING WITH THE FOLLOWING MANDATORY MEASURES:

• OUTSIDE WATERING CAN BE RESUMED ON AN ODD/EVEN DATE BASIS (MONDAY AND FRIDAY INCLUDED).  ODD ADDRESSES WATER ON ODD NUMBERED DATES; EVEN NUMBER ADDRESSES WATER ON EVEN NUMBERED DATES. 

• TO BE FAIR, NO OUTSIDE WATERING ON THE 31ST OF A MONTH FOR ODD OR EVEN ADDRESSES.
• SPLIT YOUR WATERING WITH HALF IN THE MORNING AND HALF IN THE EVENING; OR ALTERNATE ONE WATERING DAY IN THE MORNING AND THE NEXT WATERING DAY IN THE EVENING.
• CONSERVE ALL WATER USE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE THROUGH THE HOT SUMMER AND FALL DAYS.

PLEASE HELP!  WE NEED TO REDUCE PEAK DAILY USE AND OVERALL WATER USE DURING THE HOT DAYS!

The District will be distributing information notices door to door early this week with information that will hopefully encourage 100% community participation in keeping our system operating and reducing the risk of catastrophic failure.

Thank you to the volunteers that have contacted me already.  We could use some more Patrons to volunteer to help distribute the door notices, probably on Tuesday, July 13th.  Please email me at claudiag.kcwd1@gmail.com to volunteer!

WATER SYSTEM EMERGENCY SATURDAY AM JULY 10, 2021

 

Update 5:00 PM: After a long day of searching, we believe we have found a large contributor to the problem of the nightly depletion of the reservoir.  We have found a leak on a six inch main along the bottom of Mullan Trail Rd.  We are in the process of valving it off, but believe this main is part of a loop, so should have minimal impact to Patrons on the west side of the District.  Those Patrons in Grouse Meadows, and other Patrons in that area, may see some reduction in pressure as the shutting of that valve will mean that water is being fed to the Grouse Meadows Booster station only through the Shiras main.  The only Patron on that main uses his own well water.

The reservoir has only reached a level of 1.1 feet since this morning (full is 14.5 feet), so please continue to keep outside irrigation off and continue to use water for only essential purposes until we can report on the reservoir recovery.

Thank you.

_____________________________________________________________________________

TO ALL KCWD#1 PATRONS:

 

THE WATER SYSTEM RESERVOIR WAS TOTALLY DEPLETED AS OF 6:30 AM THIS MORNING, Saturday, July 10, 2021.

 

LOW PRESSURE OR INTERRUPTED WATER SERVICE WILL FIRST OCCUR AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE DISTRICT UNTIL THERE IS SUFFICIENT RECOVERY OF RESERVOIR LEVELS.

 

STOP ALL OUTSIDE WATERING AND RESRICT WATER FOR ESSENTIAL USES ONLY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE THAT RESERVOIR HAS RECOVERED.

 

PLEASE LET YOUR NEIGHBORS KNOW, AND IF THEY HAVEN’T ALREADY, ASK THEM TO SEND AN EMERGENCY CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER TO:

 

CUSTSERV.KCWD1@GMAIL.COM

Thank You to All Who Attended the Emergency Meeting Friday Morning

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank all of the Patrons who attended the Emergency Meeting this morning.  Their participation in understanding the water system issues and limitations, discussions, suggestions on possible solutions, and willingness to volunteer to help get the word out about what we are trying to solve, based upon their new understanding of the serious problems we are facing during these hot summer days, was most welcomed by the Board.  The District will soon be distributing a "door hanger" notice, and posting to this blog, to let everyone know what the issues are with our community water system, and what everyone must do to ensure our system can provide essential water for all Patrons, while lowering the high risk of a system catastrophic failure.

If you can volunteer to help distribute door hanger notices, please email me at claudiag.kcwd1@gmail.com.  I will be notifying all volunteers where to meet when we have the notices ready to distribute!

Please continue to conserve water use, especially daily consumption, while we finalize the mandatory measures for all households which were discussed and supported by those who attended the meeting.

Claudia Gough

President, KCWD#1 Board of Directors

Emergency Board of Directors Meeting Friday, July 9, 2021, 7:30 AM

An Emergency KCWD#1 Board of Directors Meeting is scheduled for Friday morning, July 9, 2021, at 7:30 AM Tuesday.  It will be held at the Fire Station at 7739 E. Sunnyside Rd.  The agenda can be viewed on the Board Meeting Agendas page.

Transcript of Automated Call July 3, 2021, 11:37 AM

 Phone Message July 3, 2021 11:37 AM

This message is from the Kootenai County Water District No. 1 Board of Directors.

Thank all of you for stopping all yard watering for the last two days, and conserving other water use.  The reservoir was able to recover and the pumps got a needed rest.

Going forward, the District requires the following mandatory measures to conserve water use and give our aging system the best chance of continuing to operate with the best reliability possible.

1.   No yard watering on Friday’s and Monday’s.

2.   Yard watering allowed only on odd or even dates according to your address number. If you have an even numbered address, water on even dates.  If you have an odd numbered address, water on odd dates.

3.   Split your watering schedule to the early morning and evening with minimum time durations.

The District realizes that these measures require some extra time to program and reprogram automatic irrigation systems, and we appreciate your cooperation.  Please give this information to your landscape service provider, if they are responsible for timer programming, so that they can adjust to this schedule.

In general, please conserve water use during the rest of the summer and fall seasons, so that we can assure enough water for all Patrons.

Please pass this information on to your neighbors as some have not provided, or updated, a phone number for automated notifications.

As always, please monitor the blog at www.kcwd1.blogspot.com for important information and updates for the District.

Thank you.

Transcript of Automated Call July 1, 2021 8:54 AM

Phone Message July 1, 2021 08:54 AM

This emergency message is from the Kootenai County Water District No. 1 Board of Directors.

To all Patrons,

Yesterday morning, the Fire Department responded to a grass fire on S Bonnell, and utilized the District hydrant in the area.  The reservoir was depleted in the effort, did not recover overnight and the level is still falling.

Effective immediately, please turn off all outside watering for today, and use water for essential tasks only.  

Please pass this information on to your neighbors as some have not provided, or updated, a phone number for automated notifications.

As always, please monitor the blog at www.kcwd1.blogspot.com for important information and updates for the District.

 

Thank you.