August 9, 2022

The City of Rawlins is sharing updates regarding our water system improvements and funding on most Tuesdays. For all the latest updates, including seven from last week and fourteen from the week before, view the latest news at www.rawlinswy.gov/385/5910/Water-News

Funding/Administrative Updates:

-Water Rates: We have hired Rate Specialist Carl Brown to evaluate and propose necessary rate changes for our water enterprise fund. Mr. Brown will be presenting at a City Council workshop on September 6th, 2022 at 6:00 pm about his findings and recommendations. The public is encouraged to come and hear the presentation, or to watch remotely on Channel 191 or YouTube. We will also have overflow seating for viewing of the presentation in the City Hall basement. After the recommendations are made, we will have a form available for community feedback on our website. Please watch for more information in next week’s update, and our on website and Facebook page.

-Town of Sinclair Contract: The City of Rawlins provides the Town of Sinclair with treated water per our 2003 Joint Powers Agreement. After the water passes our meter and into their tank, the Town of Sinclair controls the use of their water. This includes the Town billing their water users and maintaining their own infrastructure. The Town of Sinclair provides raw river water from the North Platte River based on their pre-1904 water rights. They also pay for treated water at a 40% discount.

-Parks & City Watering: As of the first week of August, parks have reduced the watering of our city spaces by half (from our original significantly reduced amount) until further notice.

Infrastructure Updates:

-Replacement of 10,000 feet of woodstave pipeline with PVC (Phase 1): Crews are still working to make the final connections of the springs to the new pipeline. They are also installing 150 feet of additional french drains to collect more water in the springs basin at spring boxes 11, 12, and 13. The crew is also finalizing earthwork, reseeding, and other details on the final punch list.

-Pre-Treatment Plant: Kruger, the specialists who initially constructed the plant, made a field visit last week to perform an initial review of the equipment. After the equipment was individually tested, all but one piece is operating well. Staff is still ordering the equipment and preparing the plant as recommended by Y2 Consultants during the July 14th visit. Samples of our water are also being collected this week so that our pre-treatment plant process can be customized.

-Water Treatment SCADA: During the power outage last Friday, the water treatment plant ran on generator power without issue for over six hours. We also found a failure in one of our devices to measure tank levels at the Hospital Tank, so we are manually reading tanks until this IT issue can be corrected. This may have caused inaccurate readings at the Hospital Tank for the last week or so.

Water Supply/Storage Updates:

-Tanks, Flows, and Storage Data: This week our flow from the Springs/Wells averaged 1.85 million gallons per day. Our community usage averaged 1.97 million gallons per day. Our high-pressure tanks averaged 65% full and our low-pressure tanks averaged 65% full.  Full daily data can be found at www.rawlinswy.gov/381/Flows-and-Storage-Data

-Construction Water: If you have a construction project that is in need of water, please call Public Works Director Cody Dill at 307-328-4599.

For more information on water projects, as well as our water system as a whole, please visit www.rawlinswy.gov/water. You can also contact Mira Miller, City of Rawlins Community Relations Coordinator, at 307-328-4500 ext. 1022.