preview

Council Bluffs Water Works Case Study

Decent Essays

The agency representing the Water Supply section of the FSRS is the Council Bluffs Water Works (CBWW). The original Council Bluffs Water Works system was built in 1881 and had many construction and design flaws. In 1911, the department was re-organized and the system was reconstructed and improved. Currently, the CBWW is operated by the Board of Water Works Trustees, which is appointed by the Mayor. CBWW earned 36.74 out of a possible 40 points in the FSRS. Details of the credit earned in the Water Supply section are found in Table 9.
In the Credit for Supply System section, the CBWW earned 27.75 out of a possible 30 points. The CBWW utilizes surface water from the Missouri River and seven ground water wells to produce over 10 million gallons per day of quality drinking water. Water for consumer and fire fighting use is distributed to the city through 298 miles of water mains, 2,934 hydrants, and 7,990 valves (Council Bluffs Water Works [CBWW], 2014). The water distribution system has four large water reservoirs and five elevated storage tanks strategically placed throughout the city that provide over 10 million gallons of total storage. While most of the century-old water distribution system has been replaced and improved, there are still small …show more content…

CBWW earned 2.79 of the possible 3 points in this area. During the ISO evaluation, it was discovered that 3% of fire hydrants are located on mains 4 inches or smaller and 20% of fire hydrants do not have a large diameter hose (LDH) outlet (ISO, 2014). In both cases, ISO does not award full credit. As the CBWW continues to make improvements to their system, these small water mains and inadequate hydrants will be replaced. The cost for these improvements is represented by the CBWW annual budget that includes approximately $1 million per year for distribution system improvements (D. P. Drummey, personal communication, June 10,

Get Access