By Staff Sgt. Jacob Barreiro
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
The 19th Civil Engineering Squadron is finishing up an estimated $2.6 million water distribution system upgrade project on base scheduled to be completed in the coming months.
The project will replace an antiquated 50-year-old water storage tank and potable water booster pump station with a newly constructed 1.35 million gallons water storage tank and new booster pump station equipped with five state of the art centrifugal pumps said Roger Forinash, 19th CES construction management project inspector.
When completed, the new tank and pump station will enhance the quality of potable water on base and prevent the flushing or waste of more than 485,000 thousand gallons of water per month, enough to fill a giant aquarium with more than 1,500 animals.
“We flush thousands of gallons of water out of the old tank because it is made of metal.,” said Dwight Henderson, 19th CES water and fuel shop foreman. “Our hot summers would heat up the water and dissipate the chlorine. We flush to keep the chlorine level at a safe drinking level for potable water. With the new tank we won’t have to flush.”
Saving energy on flushing water is not the only aspect in which the new precast concrete tank will benefit the base, said Henderson.
“There will be better quality of water on base,” he said. “The new tank will reduce the amount of chemicals necessary to maintain potable water. It will also need less maintenance, and will save us time, money and energy.”
Henderson said the project, begun in June 2010, has been a thorough and laborious project with numerous challenges.
“It’s a cramped area,” said Henderson, referencing the project’s working grounds, populated by construction workers, construction equipment and numerous tools. “That’s a small place to work out of. We’ve been building the new tank, but are still using the old water tank while we construct the new one, keeping the base’s water supply operational the whole time.”
Forinash said that the project will not only improve the water quality on base for the long term, but is also supporting energy friendly procedures while doing so.
“The project will also add long term support and benefits to the goals of the base energy program,” he said. “In fact it was energy dollars from Air Staff that funded the project because they recognized this project will pay for itself in energy over a short period.”
A solar powered mixer will be installed in the tank to ensure uniform distribution of disinfectant and prevent stagnant water areas, said Forinash. Well-mixed tanks consume fewer disinfectant chemicals, produce fewer disinfection by-products, and eliminate the need for energy-intensive and costly deep-cycling or flushing. All of the old metal used from the old tanks and piping are being recycled as well.
While the new tank and system will buttress the base’s energy conservation agenda, it will also save them ample amounts of funds, said Henderson. The project should re-coup its cost within 10 years of completion and will save additionally unknown amounts of money in the future on facility construction.
“We’ll save a lot of money on not having to build expensive fire suppression pumps,” said Henderson. “When we built the new BX we had to install these fire suppression pumps to increase water pressure and that cost a lot of money. With the new system we won’t need those fire pumps.”
The project is only a few months from completion, and is looking like it will be finished without any problems, said Forinash.
“A lot of people didn’t even know we we’re replacing the tank and system out here,” he said. “We haven’t had the water shut down at all and haven’t had any problems with keeping the water supply on base operational. We always have to keep the water consumable and this project will make it far easier while saving energy and money for the base in the process.”
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