Battle Mountain Water System Improvement Project
BACKGROUND
Lander County is named after General Fredrick W. Lander who was a prominent road builder for the Department of the Interior. He played an important role in negotiating a peace settlement with American Indians during the Pyramid Lake War of 1860. Situated in the center of the state, the Lander County region attracted prospectors fanning out across the Great Basin after the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode. Battle Mountain is the county seat.
Battle Mountain's name derives from the mountain range to the southwest, where in 1850 angry California emigrants ambushed a band of Shoshones after Indians had attacked their wagons. As a town, it did not spring into existence until January, 1870. In October, 1868, the railroad established Reese River Siding here and made Argenta, five miles eastward, its principal station and point of departure for the busy mining camps to the south.
Early in 1870, Argenta was moved bodily to this location, and Reese River Siding was renamed Battle Mountain Switch. Stage and freight roads north and south teemed with "mud wagon" stages and massive freight wagons, hauled by long jerk-line teams.
From 1880 to 1938, Battle Mountain was the operating headquarters for the Nevada Central Railroad, as well as the Battle Mountain and Lewis Railroad (1881-1890). The town's first copper boom developed in 1897, in the Galena (Battle Mountain) Range.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Health concerns with regard to the existing water system that must be mitigated include low water pressure areas and deteriorated leaking cast iron main. The poor condition of the cast iron main is of particular concern. The leaking pipe system loses an average of 525,000 gallons per day, as much as 54% of the total volume pumped.
In November 2002, Lander County was awarded a grant by the Board for Financing Water Projects under the AB 237 program. The grant to Lander County was for 64.6% of the total project cost of $2,448,800. Lander County arranged to receive the balance of the needed funds from the USDA and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). After three years, the USACE informed Lander County that there was no money available for a drinking water project in Battle Mountain. During the three-year delay, the cost of the project increased significantly.
New policies imposed by the Nevada Department of Transportation created a time constraint on this project forcing Lander County to submitted a request for additional funding rather than submitting a new letter of intent and grant application. On November 3, 2005, the Board for Financing Water Projects increased the eligible project cost from $2,448,800 to $4,745,743 with the condition that the revised grant is for a two-year period. Lander County secured loans with the USDA to supply the necessary match funds.
The scope of this project includes: 1) the replacement of the cast iron water main, service laterals, and associated valves and assemblies and 2) the replacement of the disinfection systems for wells #4 and #6.
Battle Mountain receives its water supply from a confined aquifer groundwater source via three groundwater wells. Arsenic concentrations of the water supply have been reported at concentrations of 18 to 23 ppb, which exceed the new MCL for arsenic of 10 ppb. Future projects may include the construction of an arsenic treatment/removal facility.
PROJECT STATUS
Water main and service lateral replacement was completed ahead of schedule. Maps of the project are courtesy of Shaw Engineering.
Place your cursor over the drawing for a brief summary of what your are seeing. Click on the drawing to enlarge - note that the enlarged drawing will open in a new window as a pdf file. The pdf files are large (~1.5 Meg) and may take a while to open depending on your system capacity.
The following construction photos are courtesy of Shaw's inspectors - Gordon Cole and Ray Ridenour.
Place your cursor over the photo for a brief summary of what your are seeing. Click on the photo to enlarge - note that the enlarged photo will open in a new window.
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