In an effort to better serve the area, the Public Water Supply and Sewerage District No. 4 received a grant and loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The funding, for more than $2.6 million, mainly will go to putting in a back-up well, District Manager Jennifer Pierce said.
It will be large enough to supply the entire system.
“The system definitely needs to be revamped and updated and get another well on site that’s big enough to hold everybody,” she said.
The district includes parts of Wayne and Butler counties, with the main well house located off County Road 543. It services about 1,800 people.
Pierce said at the last board meeting, the engineer “was hoping that everything would go to bid in early spring of 2021.”
The district puts out maybe one boil water notice a year, if that, she said.
Through a new alarm system, Pierce said, officials get called earlier if there is a major issue and are normally able to fix it before a boil water notice would need to be issued.
Still, the water system in place is 20 years old, she said, and it’s hard to get replacement parts.
Part of the funding also will go toward updating that system at the current well house and booster pump station, Pierce said, which will keep it from breaking down.
According to a release about the funding, planned improvements include replacing meter supply lines, correcting main line leaks, correcting check-valve issues, power supply upgrades and other improvements to one well and both booster pump stations, rehabilitating all water storage tanks, constructing a new well, installing stand-by power to all pumping and control units and installing new radio read water meters.
About $1.4 million of the funding is a loan, and the other $1.2 million is a grant.
Overall, Pierce said, customers won’t “ever have to have a water outage.”