Update to water system news
June 23 2021
The last update was in May and we are about to enter the month of July.
Time flies.
The system is still operating on the #2 well (smaller and less deep) with the main well shut off due to complaints about taste and feel.
We acknowledge the water was ‘different” then it was before and we heard a number of households found it unacceptable.
It is interesting to note a number of homes noticed nothing and most were just not as happy with the water but continued to use the water normally.
The water from well #1, while we were using it in February and March, met all criteria for service to the public. At this time we have no plan to turn the#1 well back on right away, though this is the goal in the long term. The board has hired two firms to help with planning for the steps ahead.
Pacific Ground Water has been hired to try to decipher the past years of testing, the most recent testing and data which has been provided by Cadman.
The hope is the staff there (geologists and hydro geologists) will be able to define what may have happened to so suddenly and drastically change the water in well #1, and maybe even give us some projections for the future.
Garrison Engineering has been hired to help with the more near term issues. Mr. Garrison is going to work with the board and myself to look at what options exist physically (redesign, new system components and/or changes to the system) and consider forecasting what we may need or want in the future. This may range from do nothing and live with the water as it is to a full system remodel which would not only work to addresses the current hardness problem but also address fire flow and long term sustainability.
It is important to note, there may be no fix for the hard water that is within the financial possibility of the Homeowners Association (if the water meets the standards of the State, the hardness may just be a fact of life). We will keep working towards a solution but treatment of hard water can be very expensive. We are hoping we can find an acceptable means of mixing the two wells and improving aspects of the system which the community is willing to fund and will find the produced water acceptable.
If you have questions or concerns please remember to drop a note to bigbendla@gmail.com
or myself at bheron@seanet.com.
We will have more information for the annual meeting so be sure to have someone in your household attend.
Kim Peterson
Water Manager
Well #1 testing update
May 6, 2021
As with the last well status:
We are still on well #2 (the smaller well) and still trying to understand what happened to the main well that changed the taste so dramatically.
Right now though we are also focused on what can we do to get well #1 back on line.
Inquiries have been made to various treatment engineers hoping that a simple water softening and filtration system might work.
We did work with Cadman this last month to test wells at their site and at Big Bend.
Big Bend and Cadman pulled samples the same week and submitted them for testing.
We wanted to know if the Cadman wells were affected by the change in water makeup; they do not appear to have the same problem well #1 has.
Cadman wells are not used for drinking water so they do not run all the same tests as Big Bend ( they would not notice such things as taste and odor).
At this time we continue to test on and off hoping for improvement, we are flushing on occasion and we hope to have a proposal for filtration and/or treatment that lets us put #1 well back in service soon. Meanwhile, please conserve water use, this is a much smaller well.
I still urge everyone to keep checking in with the website (here is a link to send an email) if you have questions or concerns or even to say “YEA the water tastes o.k”.
Thanks!
Kim Peterson
Water Manger
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