Gerlach Water Treatment Project
BACKGROUND
 Gerlach is located in Washoe County in the Truckee River Basin and is reached by State Route 447. Situated between the Black Rock Desert on the east and the Smoke Creek Desert on the west, the townsite of Gerlach lies in country long occupied by prehistoric Man.
John C. Fremont traveled through Northern Paiute Indian lands when he camped here in 1843 and named "Boiling Springs" ¼ mile north of town. This was also emigrant country. The Noble Road left the Applegate-Lassen Trail at Black Rock Springs, went past this site and southward through the Smoke Creek Desert toward Susanville. The town was established when the Western Pacific Railroad was constructed in Nevada (1905-1909). It still functions as a railroad division headquarters.
In 1972, the Gerlach Improvement Association (GIA) was formed, as a corporation under NRS 81.350, to "promote and encourage development of land now owned by the Western Pacific Railroad Company in the Gerlach area." The Gerlach General Improvement District (GGID) was created on April 25, 1974, under the provisions of Chapter 318 of the NRS, for many purposes including the furnishing of water facilities.
In 1975, the Western Pacific Railroad Company granted to the GIA certain easements, rights of way, water distribution system and appurtenances and rights to take and use water. These are still owned by the GIA. No agreement between the GGID and the GIA currently exists for addressing the rights and responsibilities of each party regarding the use of easements, rights of way, water distribution pipes and water rights.
Garden Spring Photos - place cursor over photo for a description or click on photo to enlarge (note that enlarged photos will open in a new browser window)
Gerlach's drinking water sources include two springs on the western slope of the Granite Mountains, the Garden and Railroad Springs. These springs produce a high quality water, with the exception of uranium. Uranium concentrations in the Railroad and Garden Springs have been as high as 110 mg/L and 290 mg/L, respectively. The Radionuclides Rule, promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on December 7, 2000, set a maximum contaminant level for uranium in drinking water at 30 mg/L.
Railroad Spring Photos - place cursor over photo for a description or click on photo to enlarge (note that enlarged photos will open in a new browser window)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Gerlach General Improvement District applied for a grant under the AB 198 program to assist with a water system improvement project. The grant was originally approved by the Board for Financing Water Projects (Board) on August 29, 2001, for $155,865.85 (80.4% of the total eligible project cost of $193,863). The scope of this partial project was to reimburse the cost of the Preliminary Engineering Report, install approximately 120 water meters, conduct a pilot study of the uranium treatment facility, and incur certain legal and administrative cost associated with water rights transfer.
A second grant awarded by the Board was for $527,442.49 (80.4% of the total eligible project cost of $656,023). The scope of this project included the design and construction of an ion exchange water treatment facility for the removal of uranium from the Town's water supply. Due to increases in construction and materials costs, the Board approved a revision to the grant on November 3, 2005, to $840,910.84 (80.4% of the new total eligible project cost of $1,045,909.01)
The components of this project include: 1. Construction of a block building approximately 30-feet by 30-feet to house two 200 gpm anion exchange vessels, a brine solution tank, and piping and appurtenances; 2. An HDPE lined evaporation pond for the disposal of the waste brine and storage of the solid waste until ultimate disposal; 3. Extension of single phase power line approximately 1.25 miles from Town to the treatment plant site (by SPPCo); and 4. Radio controlled telemetry to provide alarm capabilities and remote operation of the treatment plant.
The treatment facility is located at the site of the existing water storage tank on State Route 447 and Godeys Gap Road. The parcel is a 5-acre right-of-way granted to GGID by the Bureau of Land Management and currently contains a 150,000 gallon redwood storage tank and a 300,000 gallon steel storage tank.
Gerlach's original redwood storage tank and new steel storage tank - place cursor over photo for a description or click on photo to enlarge (note that enlarged photos will open in a new browser window)
PROJECT STATUS
The design and installation of the water meters is complete. The acquisition of 5 acres of land from the BLM allowed the GGID to construct the new treatment facility. Because the BLM would not grant further easements for lined evaporation ponds for regeneration water from the treatment plant, the resin is periodically backwashed to remove any sediment and fluff the bed, and the backwash water is returned to the redwood storage tank. An agreement has been reached with the Power Resources Incorporated (PRI) uranium mill in Wyoming to take the concentrated uranium resin waste from the treatment facility and use it for beneficial purposes. The GGID must pay for the transport of the waste to the mill.
Water from the springs flows via gravity to the redwood storage tank. From the redwood storage tank, water is pumped through the anion exchange vessels (2 in series). Finished water from the exchange vessels is chlorinated and fed into the steel storage tank before entering the distribution system. The system is currently running at a bedload of 200 gpm. Backwash water used to fluff the bed will be recycled back into the redwood tank.
The system has a local control panel in the treatment building and also a remote control system, that receives all of the telemetry from the plant and storage tanks, in the main office in Gerlach.
Start-up of the treatment plant occurred on August 2, 2006. This is one of only three uranium treatment plants planned for and/or operating in the western US at this time. The anion exchange vessels and pumps are currently on-line and functioning normally. Truckee Meadows Water Authority is providing weekly uranium analyses for the new treatment plant to help determine time to backwash and resin life expectancy. Samples are taken from 1) the raw water inlet to the treatment system, 2) after the first ion exchange tank, and finally, 3) the finished water after the second ion exchange tank. Currently, the resin is expected to last 1-2 years before it needs to be replaced.
Gerlach's uranium treatment system - place cursor over photo for a description or click on photo to enlarge (note that enlarged photos will open in a new browser window)
The Fall 2006 issue of "Water Logged" ran a nice article by John Allred on the New Uranium Treatment Plant at Gerlach . Click on the underlined title or the pdf icon to view the article.
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