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Feasibility Evaluation of the Arkansas Valley Pipeline <br />W ater Works! Committee <br />June 2003 <br />All communities must satisfy state and federal primary drinking water standards for regulated <br />contaminants through treatment or source replacement. Less documented, however, is the <br />potential burden placed upon communities by high raw water concentrations of various <br />unregulated water quality constituents such as iron, manganese, and hardness. These <br />constituents often result in poor tasting, less palatable water, and water users are required to <br />install home treatment equipment. In addition, these unregulated chemical constituents can <br />cause accelerated infrastructure decay and loss of tax base and economic impacts associated <br />with factories and businesses locating elsewhere. <br />The impact of the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, including the final radionuclide rule, <br />published December 7, 2001, was considered in assessing the "No-Action" option. The final <br />radionuclide regulations include: <br />• A 30 ug/L Uranium standard <br />• A combined Radium 226 and 228 standard of 5 pCi/L <br />• An adjusted Gross Alpha of 15 pCi/1 <br />• A forthcoming standard for Radon, expected in late 2002 <br />The estimated capital costs to cities, towns, and water districts for compliance with the <br />radionuclide rule and other regulations were based on a capital cost of $3,000 per service <br />connection and an annual operation and maintenance (O&M) cost for operating these new <br />treatment facilities set at 10 percent of capital cost. These costs are consistent with CDPHE <br />estimates of the cost for meeting radiological regulatory rules within community water <br />systems. Annual O&M costs of $150 per service connection for the existing water treatment <br />facilities have also been assumed. Cost estimates for upgrading water treatment in <br />communities within the project area are presented in Table 3.7. <br />For some participating communities there is insufficient information to determine if <br />upgrading existing water treatment facilities would likely be necessary to satisfy future <br />regulations. For these communities, we assumed an annual O&M cost of $150 per service <br />connection to cover continued operation of the existing systems as included in Table 3.7. <br />3.4.5 Disposal Alternatives for Reverse Osmosis Reject <br />The estimated costs for lower Arkansas basin municipalities and water and sanitation districts <br />to satisfy drinking water quality standards for the No Action option are based on some <br />communities using reverse osmosis (RO) to meet the standards and other water suppliers <br />using mixing with a higher quality source of water supply, when available, to meet these <br />standards. The cost estimates are based on the assumption of continued disposal of the RO <br />reject to a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) or directly to the stream. <br />37 <br />GEI Consultants, I11C. Ot284 03-0630 Feasibility Evaluation Final <br />