Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040462
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's happened occasionally in recent years because the heavy demand for water has exceeded the city's treatment capacity. The city could not keep enough water in transmission lines to keep the pressure up in several neighborhoods.
Residents on Craig Robertson Road, Kefauver Road, Mount Pleasant Boulevard and in other areas have been without water for several hours at times because the pressure was so low their faucets ran dry.
But the problem could be a lot worse and more widespread this year because the Falling Creek filtration plant is being renovated and will not be operating, Herbert said this week.
The city manager candidly admits he is scared about what could happen if the summer is dry and water usage is high.
"We are going to be in even more trouble this summer than we have in recent years," Herbert said. "I am hoping this is not the summer we have major fires or problems with transmission lines."
If the city had several major fires in succession, large areas of the city could be without water, he said.
City officials will ask residents to use conservation measures such as turning off faucets when brushing teeth, limiting watering of lawns, washing full loads of laundry and dishes. And they will try to juggle water between storage tanks and different areas to meet the demand.
Herbert said Water Department officials have already started planning for possible shortages.
The Falling Creek plant can provide 2 million gallons per day. That is a small part of the city's rated capacity to supply 23.5 million gallons daily, but 2 million gallons can be critical on dry and hot days when demand often exceeds the city's capacity, according to Kit Kiser, director of utilities and operations.
The Falling Creek plant "can make or break the difference" in whether some customers have water, Kiser said Wednesday.
Because of the heavy demand, water pressure is frequently low in some neighborhoods during the summer. Without the Falling Creek supply, pressure could drop even lower in Southeast and other areas with higher elevations where water has to be pumped, Kiser said.
"The pressure gets the lowest in neighborhoods that are the farthest from Carvins Cove because people are drawing out the water before it reaches these areas. If we have a real dry summer, it could be bad," he said.
The Falling Creek plant is not scheduled to return to operation until August.
The Carvins Cove filtration plant has a rated capacity of 18 million gallons per day, but the demand exceeded that amount on 27 days in the past year and the plant also operated at capacity for 87 days. The Crystal Spring reservoir provides 3.5 million gallons.
The city manager has launched a campaign to persuade City Council to increase water rates to pay for expanding the Carvins Cove filtration plant and make other improvements to the water system that have been recommended by consultants.
But that will not provide any more water this summer to meet the expected demand, he said. Even if council approves higher rates next month when he makes his recommendation, the Carvins Cove plant expansion might not be finished until 1993.
This summer's potential problems aside, Herbert said, it is essential for the city to move quickly to expand the Carvins Cove plant and to make the other improvements.
"I believe we have an impending disaster if we don't move ahead on this," he said. "We know we are facing problems. We've got problems right now without regard to the future."
The need for higher water rates is an unpopular issue, Herbert said, but he added, "I'm not doing my job if I don't talk about it."
by CNB