City looking to improve Hollywood storage tank

The city water tank on Hollywood Ave. (The Senitnel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)
The city water tank on Hollywood Ave. (The Senitnel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)

The Hot Springs Board of Directors will consider awarding a contract Tuesday night for improvements to the elevated water storage tank on Hollywood Avenue.

City staff has recommended the board tap Classic Protective Coatings Inc. of Menomonie, Wis., for the project. Its $746,950 bid was the lowest of the three submitted. After negotiations with staff and the city's water system consultant, Crist Engineers, the company lowered the price to $646,950.

The two other bidders, Kimery Painting Inc., $814,600, and TMI Coatings Inc., $953,000, are also from out of state.

"Our tank is very unique, and it takes out-of-state specialized contractors to paint and repair and do the things that are necessary," Todd Piller, the city's project manager, told the board last week.

The contract would be paid from revenue bonds the city issued in 2015, committing the remaining balance from the debt issue. Painting the exterior accounts for most of the expense. City staff told the board the city's logo will adorn the 1 million-gallon tank when the paint job is completed. The contract includes coating the tank's interior surface and adding a mixing system the city said will reduce trihalomethane concentrations.

The Arkansas Department of Health asked the city to add the mixing system to the contract. It has said Environmental Protection Agency research has linked an increased risk of liver and kidney cancer to long-term exposure to high THM concentrations.

Samples taken from the south and east ends of the regional water system's 145-square-mile area have shown concentrations exceeding the 80-parts-per-billion limit set by the EPA. Those areas have higher concentrations because of their distance from the Ouachita Plant that treats the city's raw-water supply from upper Lake Hamilton on the northwest end of the service area.

A byproduct of the interaction between chlorine used during the treatment process and organic material in the water, THMs become more pronounced the longer treated water remains in the distribution system. Adding a mixing system to the Hollywood tank, the primary feeder for customers on the south and east ends of the system, will direct older water at the top of the tank to the bottom where it can be distributed before the newer water.

System operators currently have no way to circulate the contents of the tank, leaving older water in storage longer and increasing water age for customers on the system's outer edges.

The tank was built in 1964, the city said.

Local on 08/20/2018

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