Water Improvement Project
Project : Timeline
Central Iron County Water Conservancy District
November 2014 – Chekshani Cliffs residents began informing the District of Hard and corrosive water issues. Over the next couple of years, the District Engineer and Water Supervisor worked with the HOA to explore treatment solutions from several water treatment representatives with little results, or costs of implementation were too expensive with little guarantee they would correct the problem. The HOA also explored the option of purchasing the system from the District.
December 2016 – New Harmony Ridge (NHR) purchased water rights and transferred them to property adjacent to the Chekshani Cliffs Subdivision to install a farming operation. The District protested the water right change application as evidence proved impact to the Chekshani Cliffs sole well. The District reached a Settlement with NHR, which allowed the District to peruse a better water source anywhere within NHR property. NHR also provided the District with access to its NHR well data to study the aquifer and water quality.
March 2017 – Several agricultural and test wells were drilled by NHR. Two wells west of Chekshani yielded little water. The first well was drilled to around 900 feet. Except for some gravel strata around 200’ it was clay and sand. During the test pumping of this well, three sets of bowls were ruined trying to get the well to clear up at varying rates of 200 to 1000 gpm. The next well was drilled near the freeway and NHR found a similar gravel strata around 150-200’ and clay the rest of the way to 700’ where they stopped. They drilled several smaller test wells with little success.
June 2018 – Based upon the water quality and quantity results from NHR and other surrounding wells It looked like water treatment was going to be the best alternative and District engineers began investigating these options.
The District took additional samples and even sampled corrosive plumbing parts from individuals homes. Although there was not a lab that the District could locate in the US that could verify exactly what was causing the corrosion the majority of indicators pointed to the high amounts of Sulfate and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). Research indicates as these increase in water, corrosion increases.
December 2018 – NHR finished drilling a new well near I-15 with promising water quality results. It showed 3.5 times less TDS (460 ppm) and 7.1 times less Sulfate (153 ppm). Every indicator showed less minerals and contaminates in the water.
January 2019 – The District held a public meeting asking the community if they would be willing to participate in a solution for better water. The cost estimates based on recently drilling a well and pipe costs as well as conversations with consultants about treatment ball parked the two proposed solutions equally at roughly $500,000. It was expressed at the meeting and with a letter that the cost would be between $3,500 and $7,000/lot depending on grants. Ballots were cast and there was overwhelming support to move forward with a project.
The District then began further engineering and exploring options of treatment or the best location of drilling a well. It was decided to explore proposing a voluntary assessment area and then let the community decide. The District discussed participating in the cost, provided the system could be expanded to serve other areas, such as Kanaraville.
September 2019 – the District sent request for proposals for a water filtration system (Solicited Contractor List). There were two companies that proposed bids the low was a Culligan of Cedar City proposing to do a reverse osmosis system. The total cost for the lowest treatment was $141,000. This did not include the cost of a building and there would need to be drying pond for waste water about the size of a football field. The engineer estimate of the overall project was $400,000. Also, the estimated operations and maintenance cost were expected to increase by 10%-14%.
February 2020 – A second community meeting was held and letters and ballots were sent to all property owners to see what project the community wanted to pursue. The District was reluctant to pursue an option that did not include having a secondary water source for redundancy and emergency purposes. (FAQ)? The community voted to drill a new well. The risk of drilling a dry hole was lessened due to the information provided by NHR’s previously drilled test wells.
The District began the process of establishing an assessment area.
April 2020 – Notice of establishing an Assessment Area.
May 2020 – Public Hearing
June 2020 – Located well using past drilling information and Passive Seismic line and Gamma ray grid, as well as a traditional local well dowser.
July 2020 – No protests were filed for the creation of an Assessment Area. Public meeting held and the District passed a Resolution designating the Assessment Area
August 2020, Drilling of new well began.
September 2020 – Community Newsletter
November 2020 – Purchase for the well drilling was $196,736 and the initial well development was $48,625. NHR agreed to use its well drilling company to save the District money and donated the land and easements for the well. To better understand what the District was able to do, a comparable bid the District was looking at drilling last year in Cedar Valley is provided. With the Chekshani Cliffs well purchase the District was able to drill a well with a 30″ bore hole and pack it with gravel. This is important as the well log shows a lot of sand and this is necessary to provide better flow into our 12″ casing. Additionally, the comparable bid was only for 8″ bore and casing.
Water chemistry results from this new well came back and the District was pleased with the lower levels of TDS and Sulfate. However, when the District took the samples the water was still quite dirty. The well hadn’t fully cleaned up or developed and as such there were high amounts of Turbidity as well as Iron and Radium-228.
December 2020 – Rocky Mt Power Contract $12,293.
February 2021 – Loan/Grant award USDA
March 2021 – the District was hoping that it could use Rocky Mt Power to connect to the development the well to see if it could get clean water. Unfortunately they could not get the drop done. So the District called around for generators and the cheapest option was to utilize NHR’s generator. The District ran the well non-stop for two weeks taking a sample at the end of the first week and at the end of the second week and the results came back great. (Turbidity, aluminum, iron, lead sample results) In all, the District has been able to drill a well and fully equip it for $346,039. This includes the building for the wellhouse, a larger borehole, a larger casing, premium gravel pack, power, water chemistry sampling, pump column, pump and motor for nearly $200,000 less than what was anticipated due to the cooperation and coordination with NHR. (full cost register of project) March News Letter
Why is the waterline going through Carters property? It will save about $30,000 in pipe and construction cost.
May 2021 – Award of contract to Munford General Contracting.
October 6, 2021 – Chekshani Cliffs HOA Meeting response to questions and concerns.
Next steps:
Fall 2021 – Complete construction
Winter 2021 – Begin delivering water and finalize Assessment Area and Fees
assessment area process
