KINGWOOD –- Members of the Preston County sewer board voted to enter into a contract with Thrasher Engineering to do the design for the Pratt and Pleasant streets area.
The board is looking to replace the 13 grinder pumps and run new pipe to each of the homes the pumps serve in those areas, and implement a gravity system by running a line from the homes to a collection spot off W.Va. 26.
Steven Buchanan, from Thrasher, estimated the cost of the project — including material, design, legal fees and permitting — will be about $125,000, plus the city’s labor. He said if the project is put out to bid it will cost the city approximately $390,000.
Nick Wolfe, crew leader, said his crew could do the job. This will save the labor costs and the project will not have to be bid out.
Board members discussed doing the job over a period of time, and paying for it as they can.
“It doesn’t hurt anything to have a manhole ground and put a pipe in,” board member Randy Plum said.
Buchanan said the board could do six of the grinder pumps and then do another six.
Plum said once the board gets the engineering design it will have an idea of what they can do.
Board members also discussed I&I, inflow and infiltration, which occurs when storm water and groundwater enters a wastewater system.
“We can put it (progress) in a letter and give (the DEP) a progress report,” Mayor Jean Guillot said.
The board asked Wolfe to put together a report so the Department of Environmental Protection can be updated about the progress in eliminating the I&I.
“Phase two of the program starts in December,” Wolfe said. “That’s when we start building the tanks.”
Tanks hold the I&I so it can be treated before going back into either a river or a stream.
Guillot said he did not believe Kingwood would have to construct tanks. He said the board has made “some pretty good strides” at eliminating the I&I problem.
“We’re on the fifth phase of smoke testing,” he said. “We started at the Dairy Queen and we are now on Price Street. We’ve been reducing I&I and are working to be complaint.
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