Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 10, 1993 TAG: 9308100167
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Soon, dry faucets will be a thing of the past in Roanoke.
The city is spending $30 million to make sure the spigots keep flowing. It's none too soon for city residents who frequently have low water pressure, especially on hot, summer days.
The city is expanding the Carvins Cove filtration plant to help meet the increasing demand for water.
And it's installing a new water transmission line from the filtration plant to the Crystal Spring reservoir in South Roanoke to boost pressure and provide a backup source for emergencies.
The huge project has attracted little attention since City Council increased water rates by 55 percent two years ago to pay for it.
On Monday, council members and other city officials got to see where the money is being spent. They were taken on a tour of the filtration plant and proposed location for the new 36-inch water transmission line.
Bulldozers, movers and cranes have changed the landscape around the plant as new sedimentation basins and lagoons begin to take shape.
Craig Sluss, manager of the Water Department, said the plant expansion and new line should solve the water pressure problem. Sluss said the project should be completed by early 1995.
Sluss said detours will be required on some streets while the waterline, which will be 13.5 miles long, is being installed.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles, who heads the city's Water Resources Committee, and other officials wrote their names on a large pipe that will be installed as part of the expansion project.
Bowles said the expansion will help meet the city's long-term need for a larger filtration plant.
The city has plenty of water, but it doesn't have the treatment capacity that is needed.
On some summer days in recent years, the demand for water has exceeded the city's capacity of 23.5 million gallons.
When that happens, residents in some neighborhoods in Southeast and South Roanoke are plagued with pressure problems.
The city sells almost 3 million gallons a day to Roanoke County, which is building its own reservoir at Spring Hollow.
The Carvins Cove filtration plant has a rated capacity of 18 million gallons a day, but the demand exceeded that amount 114 days in the past year.
The city's water system includes three supplies:
Carvins Cove, which is being expanded to a capacity of 28 million gallons a day.
Crystal Spring reservoir, a natural spring without a filtration plant that can provide 3.5 million gallons a day.
Falling Creek filtration plant, which can provide 2 million gallons a day.
During recent summers, city officials have asked residents to conserve water. But there have been no requests for conservation this summer, they said, because heavy rainfall last spring filled Carvins Cove. The water level now is only 3.5 feet below the dam's spillway.
During a drought in the early 1980s, the water dropped to 24 feet below the spillway.
by CNB