Briggs: Saline's Wells Should be Inspected Each Year. They Hadn't Been Inspected in 5-6 Years.

Cooler temperatures and rain Tuesday should help the City of Saline meet its water conservation goals as the city's biggest drinking water well is down for repair.

The city expects to pump about 1 million gallons of water per day as Well 5 is down. Typically, the city uses 1.3 to 1.4 million gallons a day. At capacity, the city's two water towers can hold 850,000 gallons, 250,000 at the tower downtown and 600,000 gallons at the tower on the east side.

At Monday's meeting, Water and Wastewater Superintendent Bill Briggs provided a brief update on the situation, prompting the city to ask residents to conserve water until Well 5 is repaired. After Acting City Manager Elle Cole suggested workers might discover what is wrong with the well on Tuesday, Briggs said it might take a little longer.

"We won't know anything tomorrow. They're going to pull it and hopefully by the end of the week we'll have an idea of what's going on," Briggs said. "This particular well has been deteriorating over the last six months to a year."

Briggs said the remaining wells can "basically" produce enough water for the city, but that it's going to be harder.

"We usually shoot between 120-140 for hardness. We're going to do about 160," he said.

If the city runs low on water, it may be harder.

That was all that was said about the situation at Monday's meeting.

In the previous meeting, however, there were more facts about Well 5. Briggs was talking about yet another delay in the completion of Well 7.

The most recent delay and $135,000 increase in the cost of the Well 7 production was caused by several things. First, the city tried to drill and complete the well on the "cheap and dirty," Briggs said, adding that's "what started the whole mess."

In addition, Briggs said, the city went ahead with work because the city's project sat on a desk at EGLE for a year.

"It wasn't emergency enough," Briggs said.

When the state took an interest, it demanded more work.

In addition, there were communication issues between Tetra Tech and MidWest.

"I should have stick them in a room and said 'figure it out,'" Briggs said.

Had Well 7 been done on time, the city could have absorbed the Well 5 issue without a call for conservation.

Two weeks ago, Briggs told council that as soon as Well 7 was fixed, he'd send parts of Wells 5 and 6 off for inspection. Briggs both wells had deteriorated. Well 5, in particular, was supposed to pump 1,000 gallons a minute. It had been down to less than half of that. Briggs estimated it might cost $50,000 to service each well.

Meanwhile, the city is expected a master plan on the city's water system by the end of the year. It could recommend more wells, a bigger water plant, or even a connection to the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority. Currently, the YCUA water stops at Saline High School.

During a portion of the meeting, Councillor Nicole Rice asked if there was imminent work to be done in the water system between now and the time the report was presented. Briggs said as soon as Well 7 was corrected, he would have Well 5 pulled since it was producing well below capacity. Rice suggested Briggs not go too far down the line of repairing Well 5 until the report was issued.

But Briggs said wells 5 and 6 needed to be inspected.

"You should have your wells looked at and tested at least once a year," Briggs said. "These wells haven't been looked at in 5 or 6 years."

Nobody on council questioned Briggs about the lack of inspections in public. Not on Aug. 3. Not on Aug. 17.

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