Over the last 2 years, we have asked for your help in addressing our system pumping capacity shortage. As the number of automated sprinkler systems installed in our district has multiplied — from just a few users not that many years ago to an overwhelming majority today —the demand on our system in the early morning hours has skyrocketed. Just a couple of decades ago, our water system peaks were at 6:30 a.m. when people hit the showers and in the evenings at 6 p.m. when they adjusted their hoses and sprinklers.
Now the demand starts early in the morning, and by 4 a.m. we are at peak pumping. Put simply, every pump we own is running, and the reservoirs are being drained. By 6 a.m., when people are rising, the water demand drops, and we are starting to refill the reservoirs.
Over the last couple of years, we have asked for your help to shift the peak demand by changing the start time of sprinkler systems away from 4 a.m. This was successful in mitigating this peak enough that we had fewer problems meeting demand needs in 2018 and 2019 as compared to 2017.
As this is being written, we are installing a new, larger pump in 1 of our wells, which will increase our pumping capacity by over 2,000 gallons per minute to meet the morning demand. This new pump, combined with your continued help, could delay the installation of an entirely new well by 2 to 4 years. This new well, planned to be built on a site we already own, would be constructed to increase overall capacity and be capable of delivering 5,000 gallons per minute. This will require us to build new water mains to deliver the water from the well to your location.
Again, a solution exists. We have the preliminary engineering work completed to show that it can be done. However, the cost is high, and we expect the expenses for the necessary work in this decade to be between $2 to $3 million.