Millions Needed for Water, Sewer System Updates

By Steve Groves - Correspondent
Weber Sentinel News
Posted on December 2, 2005

When could flushing your money down the toilet be a good thing? Perhaps when it means spending money on sewer systems and a water treatment plant to help keep pace with growth, replace and update aging components and prevent major shutdowns. Turning on the tap, doing laundry and flushing the toilet are daily activities to which we do not give much thought until we cannot perform them.

While there is no imminent threat of major malfunctions, local water systems and the sewer treatment plant are aging and will not last forever. Lance Wood, general manager for the Central Weber Sewer Improvement District, said the treatment plant is 50 years old and normal plant life is usually 20 to 30 years.

Wood said, “We are just about at our capacity now, and we have a growth rate of 3 percent annually.”

The district has hired MWH Engineering from South Jordan to evaluate the plant and system and make recommendations. In a preliminary report released Oct. 17, MWH estimated it will take from $80 to $120 million in improvements and new facilities to meet the area’s projected needs for the year 2025.

MWH Project Director Cory Duncan said failure to keep up with demand and not maintaining the facility could result in failure to meet EPA and state purity standards for the output secondary water that could lead to fines of as much as $25,000 a day.

Wood calculates daily water usage at 110 gallons per person for each of the 150,000 residents in the district.

While the final report is not due till the end of the year, Wood said, “We’ve been working on this for a few years and we are looking for funding from all sources.”

Ogden’s culinary water system is also not keeping up with demand and could need as much as $130 million to maintain needs till the year 2025. Ogden’s Public Service Director George Benford said the infrastructure of Ogden’s water system is 75 to 100 years old while the average design life is 50 years.

In an engineering study prepared by Sunrise Engineering, Inc., of Draper, there are numerous problems in the city system ranging from red rusty colored water to lack of enough pressure for fire protection. Benford admits some parts of town are worse than others, but “We have more needs than funds,” he said “When we go to the city council” the fire department may need a new fire truck so we compete for the dollars.”

He added that the success of the “Slow the Flow” conservation campaign actually hurt the water department because of reduced revenue.

Public Utilities Manager Marvin Zaugg said, “We don’t want the people to have a huge water bill, but the current rates paid are not enough to do all we want.”

Mayor Matthew Godfrey agreed, saying, “We need a philosophical change in the city council to charge rates high enough for replacement and not just repair. We’ve known about these needs for years, and there is a study done every two or three years and they all say the same things. Political motives prevent the council from raising rates.”

The 301 miles of distribution pipeline provide an average daily demand of 255 gallons per person with a peak day factor 473.4 gallons per person. Current policy calls for a residential main pipeline to repair 20 breaks or leaks before the line is replaced and five repairs in a medical or commercial water main.

The Godfrey said, “Leaks are the best barometer. Some of these pipes, even though they are 60 to 70 years old, are still in great shape.”

Ogden’s budget for 2006 is just over $109 million. With estimated costs for overhauling the sewer and water systems approaching $300 million, critics of the mayor question his push for the use of taxpayer funds for the proposed recreation center at the downtown mall site.

“The money comes from separate sources. It is not a choice between infrastructure and economic development. The High Adventure Recreation Center will broaden the tax base. It is an investment in the future that will create jobs for the future. By law the funds for the recreation center cannot be used for the city infrastructure,” Godfrey said.

Sentinel News asked Godfrey if he felt voters sent him a message this election by replacing council members who favored his project with three who specifically objected to the development. He called that idea media hype created by a reporter for a Salt Lake newspaper.

He said his opponents “don’t understand the long process of information gathering and decision making that took place. They came in at the end without all the facts. Show me a critic that’s created anything.”

Godfrey said Larry Miller is ready to build movie theaters and the Boyer Company restaurants if the city does its part with the Treehouse Museum and High Adventure Recreation Center. The museum is under construction.

According to Godfrey, the only sure way to fail is to not do the project.

“Private business is not getting a dime from us. The buildings will be city owned. A recent survey showed 28 percent of the movie-goers at the Layton Mall were from Weber County. We need to keep the daters here. This will be a regional draw,” Godfrey said.

When asked how the mall would affect existing Ogden taxpaying businesses, Godfrey said, “Welcome to free enterprise.”

Sentinel News asked him how city help is free enterprise.

Godfrey said, “I challenge anyone to show me a decaying city center that has recovered without government intervention.”

Newly-elected Ogden city council member Doreen Jeske said she is open minded, but “nothing is going to change the fact that he wants to use taxpayer money for a private park. Gold’s Gym is private and requires a membership. According the mayor’s own figures, only 12 percent of the public will use it.”

Bill Glassman, also newly voted to the council, said, “So far we’ve spent over $30 million in purchasing, demolition and legal issues and haven’t poured a footing. I may not know the specifics, but I know due diligence has not been done. This is a bag of snakes. I would like to be able to get in and dig and find the facts before I vote.”

Godfrey said he hopes “the new council members will be courageous and help Ogden progress.”

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Editor's note: Posted with the permission of the Weber Sentinel News. Read the original article here.

I'll add that it strikes me as odd that Mayor Godfrey seeks to blame the entire infrastuctural "deferred-maintenance" problem on the Ogden city council -- a council that's been his slavish "rubber-stamp" for the past four years. Everybody knows that it was his idea to plow every available city dime into the rec center project, a project that's deemed risky even by its own proponents. And correct me if I'm wrong about this, but wasn't it Mayor Godfrey's very own idea, to pledge 100% of the BDO lease revenue (which had been ear-marked for infrastructure) at the very last minute, as loan security, in order to save the rec center project?

Comments, anyone?