Arkansas - Las Animas Water System Improvements_App 2

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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form Fonn Revised May 2007 regional economy. The proposed project is focused on existing facilities. All proposed replacements, improvements and modifications are to be located within existing rights-of-way, easements, buildings and other various city- owned facilities. The improvements will effectively enlarge the current \NTP and increase available raw water to the \NTP. In contrast, the water distribution system will maintain its current configuration, but will have larger diameter pipe installed, as needed, to meet demand and water flow requirements. Water Activitv Addresses Issues of Statewide Value One of the goals of this project is to increase the amount of capacity within the city's raw water collection system and the current \NTP. The expansion will directly result from the local correction facility expanding its facilities; however, the expansion brings much added value and opportunity to the city. As previously stated, a few years ago the city was approached to supply water to a hog farm. Given the city's capacity capabilities and the desired amount of water requested at that time, the city was unable to provide the requested amount of water. The hog farm located elsewhere, resulting in the loss of a potentially significant addition to the local and regional economy. With this being said, the additional capacity resulting from this project, should a new industry request water in the future, means the city will be well-suited to meet such a request. This would impact the economy in a very positive way, which is highly desirable in the Lower Arkansas River Valley. Therefore, this project brings not only added benefit to the City of Las Animas, but to the surrounding communities, counties and the State of Colorado. The project will effectively eliminate the current water gap facing the city. Furthermore, the city will expand capabilities to collect its entitled amount of raw water in addition to increasing the amount of available treated water. This will directly bring added benefit to the State of Colorado from increased revenue and taxes, provide an economic boost in an economically distressed area and aid in better managing the water resources within the state. 4. Please provide an overview of the water project or activity to be funded including - type of activity, statement of what the activity is intended to accomplish, the need for the activity, the problems and opportunities to be addressed, expectations of the participants, why the activity is important, the service area or geographic location, and any relevant issues etc. Please include any relevant TABOR issues that may affect the Contracting Entity. Please refer to Part 2 of Criteria and Guidance document for additional detail on information to include. The City of Las Animas has undertaken a comprehensive Preliminary Engineering Report evaluating its water system. One of the many findings within the PER determined that the city was going to fall short of meeting the water demands placed on the system; hence, a water gap was created. The Water Needs Assessment section of the SWSI report dated November 2004 noted that the City of Las Animas had reported they were capable of meeting future water demands up to 2030. However, the city was unaware at that time of the magnitude of the upcoming demands of their water system. In the fall of 2006, the local correctional facility announced to the city that they were undertaking an expansion. The expansion would double the inmate capacity of the correctional facility. This resulted in the scope of the PER being expanded to evaluate the water treatment plant (\NTP) and the water supply. Construction on the expansion is in progress. The net affect of the correctional facility attaining its inmate expansion will be the city's inability to provide sufficient raw to the \NTP and treated water to all of its constituents during high demand periods. Such being the case, the city's existing \NTP will need to be expanded through the addition of another reverse osmosis (RO) train or secondary recovery. In addition, two of the seven wells the city relies upon for raw water are in need of replacement. Furthermore, the city is pursuing replacement of two of the city's Light and Power wells to increase the supply of raw water to the \NTP. Couple this with the fact that the city's raw water supply is limited by the piping arrangement between their wells and the \NTP, such limits the total amount of raw water available to the city. Therefore, the city needs to bring one of the current abandoned wells back on line in conjunction with the installation of a transmission line extending to the \NTP. This will require the old well F:\WPDATA\Las Animas\Water\05 WSlmp\Financial\Roundtable\06-07 Application (may 07).doc 9