Failed water well tops council talks

BOBBY HORECKA, MANAGING EDITOR

BOBBYHORECKA@GMAIL.COM

The failure of the city’s water well No. 4 in February is causing some serious concerns for the city of Moulton, councilmembers discussed last week.

So much so, in fact, the city could well be facing a water shortage by summer’s end, city leaders said during their meeting Tuesday, April 12, especially if the area continues in these drought conditions.

Already, the city’s other three wells, all set to shallow aquifers than the deeper Well No. 4, are pumping at about half capacity due to the extreme dry conditions depleting aquifer levels.

And wells two and three, which both carry minute traces of arsenic in the water and must be specially treated for the substance are having to alternate pumping because of the smaller capacity water treatment capabilities, a problem that city workers have long bemoaned since the treatment plant was first engineered.

Essentially, only one of those wells (between Wells No. 2 and 3) can operate and provide water to residents; currently is only capable of treating one well’s production capacity (which is about 75 gallons per minute).

Well No. 4, the deepest well at just shy of 1,000 feet, has a production capacity of 180 gallons per minute, which in conjunction Wells No. 1 and one of the other two, kept Moulton in ready supply, most years. Losing Well No. 4, however, was a major blow to water availability in the city.

Well No. 1, located at 104 S. Hackberry and drilled in October 1946, is 75 years old, but produces about 133 gallons per minute (normally) when pumping at the 220- foot level. Well No. 2 at 503 Cockrill St., was drilled in March 1951; it’s set at 336-feet and produces (normally) at 220 gpm. Well No. 3 at 100 Veterans Drive was drilled in August 1971. It’s 350 feet deep and produces (normally) at 100 gpm.

Well No. 4 at 102 Veterans Drive was initially drilled in November 1996. It was designed to draw 125 gpm, and according to Weisinger Inc., the fifth company to work on the well now (after Layne Texas, the original driller; Maresh Drilling, hired for repairs 2004; Friedel Well Service, hired for repairs in 2006 and 2010; and Alsay Inc., hired for repairs in 2015), says repairs would cost an estimated $269,261.

And that offers no sure guarantee that anyone even can get the well back up and operational.

Councilman Craig Hughes, the city’s representative on the Golden Crescent Council of Governments, has watched closely the dealings of that group, even before Well No. 4 failed, mostly because they were in the process of landing sizable federal grants that are intended for city infrastructure improvements at city water wells, water treatment plants and wastewater treatment facilities.

Approximately $4 million will likely be headed Lavaca County’s way, he shared with the council. An official announcement of that funding is planned at a countywide meeting set June 8 at the Hallettsville council chambers, at which time funds might become available by sometime in July.

Part of what makes Moulton prime spots for funding priority comes in the city’s overall wealth distribution and, most importantly, its presence of arsenic in the well water supply, Hughes noted.

Of course, July is still a ways off, councilwoman Kelley Moeller noted, especially when an entire city of people is needing water.

“We need to put some numbers together and talk with the bank about possible financing options now, rather than sit around with hopes and dreams of landing some grant,” she said.

To do that, however, one needs engineering documents and a construction plan, neither of which come free, yet both are needed to get the loan.

“We have to bite the bullet, as they say, grab the bull by the horns and get this done,” mayor pro-tem Donald Wagner agreed.

Before all that, Councilman Hughes offered another suggestion, one that would attack the repairs on a stepby- step basis, and one that has a cost breakdown at each step.

The first step, at roughly $8,000, involves sending down a drill bit to see if the company can even access the problem area. If so, then the company would bring in its drilling apparatus and drill out the failed concrete section, then acidize the well, and rework the concrete that failed before, and possibly have the well up and running again in as little as a month for that $269,261 repair price quoted.

Assuming, of course, the concrete doesn’t fail once more. As Hughes pointed out, such failures are not uncommon, but there’s no guarantee on any of it

If, however, the first step proves a failure, everything stops right then and there and the well gets capped at a cost of about $41,000. Repair options eliminated, the city must now look at new drill options, and it should know that in a matter of weeks.