4/13/2006 4:00:00 AM Questions continue over cost of arsenic treatment Council delays design work to allow for review by Chino Valley
By CINDY BARKS The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT The high cost of the city's chosen route on arsenic treatment for its drinking water, along with concerns from Chino Valley about review of the plans, dominated this week's discussion about the $23.5 million plant.
Facing a mandate to comply with new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards on arsenic by December 2007, the Prescott City Council appeared poised Tuesday to approve nearly a half-million dollars worth of design-related work for the arsenic-treatment plant.
Ultimately, however, questions from the Town of Chino Valley caused the city to delay its drive toward construction of the plant that would remove arsenic from Prescott's water supply, which originates in a well field in Chino Valley.
To allow Chino Valley officials the opportunity to review the plans for the plant, the Prescott Council agreed to table the discussion until its next round of meetings on April 18 and 25.
Even before the discussion arose about Chino Valley concerns, city officials dealt with a number of questions from the audience about the high cost of the arsenic-treatment plant that is currently under design.
Local resident John Kaites told the council he was "frustrated" over the city's plans to spend $23.5 million, when he said much-less-expensive portable units exist that could handle the arsenic treatment for specific city wells that have high levels of arsenic.
Recent testing showed that four of the six city wells have arsenic levels that comply with the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards of 10 parts per billion, while two of the wells exceeded the new acceptable levels.
Kaites urged the city to look into other options before moving ahead with the coagulation/filtration system that a consultant firm is designing.
"There are communities that are using far less expensive methods," Kaites told the council. He suggested that the city should wait at least until after it knows the arsenic levels in the wells that it plans on the Big Chino Water Ranch near Paulden. If that water has low arsenic levels, he said, blending might be possible to bring down the overall levels, and the new plant might not be necessary.
However, Public Works Director Craig McConnell maintained that the city's consultant, Damon S. Williams Associates, earlier looked into a variety of options for arsenic treatment and recommended the coagulation/filtration as the most straightforward and the least expensive.
"There was an in-depth assessment of arsenic levels and an evaluation of alternatives," McConnell said, adding that "These are valid questions, but those questions have been answered."
Councilman Bob Roecker, who was serving as mayor pro tem Tuesday in the absence of Mayor Rowle Simmons, told Kaites that he too had focused on the possibility of blending previously. However, further study showed that the method was "not practical because of the variables (in arsenic levels)," Roecker said.
Even as the city is eyeing the latest round of design-related work, officials with the Town of Chino Valley are asking for an opportunity to review the plans for the plant.
City Manager Steve Norwood told the council Tuesday that he spoke earlier that day with Chino Valley Town Manager Bill Pupo, who asked that the city postpone this week's steps to allow for more town involvement.
On Wednesday, Pupo pointed out that because the plant would be within Chino Valley limits, town officials want the opportunity to review the plans.
"We really don't know very much about it," Pupo said of the arsenic-treatment plant.
If Prescott builds the plant near its well field in south Chino Valley, Pupo said, "It could be within a rock's throw of the (Chino Valley) high school" and right across the road from a fire station.
The Town of Chino Valley has a development process that Prescott should follow in its planning for the plant, Pupo said. "And if there are chemicals involved, they probably should have a community meeting," he added.
