G’Shoals begins long look at water service

October 25, 2012, 6:30 pm by Glynis Crawford Smith

Water Department Supervisor Peggy Smith, left, and Finance Director/Assistant City Manager Ken Nickel, right, display a Pall water filter for the Granite Shoals City Council Tuesday night. (Photo by Glynis Crawford Smith)

Citizens at the Granite Shoals City Council Meeting Tuesday shared in a detailed update on the operations of the City Water Department, including a mind-boggling tour of engineering challenges left in the wake of plant construction in 2006.

Some problems, such as an invasion of buzzards so destructive that they have disabled the aerial clearing lights on the Bluebriar elevated water storage tower, are transitory. Some are a function of the ravages of time on outlying infrastructure, in place since before incorporation in 1966. Even now, the city is applying for a grant to help replace its westernmost water storage facility.

Most troubling to the Council has been failures in the newest plant and lines. For more than an hour and before enumerating new challenges, Water Department Supervisor Peggy Smith outlined design flaws, malfunctioning computer software and improper materials that have been overcome in the past year.

For more on this story, see Friday's Highlander.

Reader Comments

Sounds like they hired the same sorry engineering firm that the school used for the over priced snake bit football stadium.
October 25, 2012, 10:45pm by Getitright