Pablo water storage expansion complete
Shay Farmer photo
Celebrating the completion of Pablo and Lake County Water and Sewer District’s new water storage tank are Shari Johnson, district engineer for Shari A. Johnson and Associates Engineering; Mike Lee, district president; Christopher Stikes, operator; Leslie Arneson, office manger; Patrick Sorrell, district manager; Tim Courville, district board member; and Luke Taylor, operator.
Nicole Tavenner
Pablo’s new water storage tank takes the town’s water holding capacity from 180,000 gallons to 430,000 gallons.
Nicole Tavenner
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PABLO — The Pablo and Lake County Water and Sewer District recently celebrated the completion of new water storage infrastructure that will meet the needs of the growing town. The water storage tank, which can be seen along Highway 93, increased the town’s water holding capacity from 180,000 gallons to 430,000 gallons, with room to grow in the future. The project also included a new backup generator and state of the art equipment that can control the town water flow via smartphone.
“I’ve been on the board for over 20 years and this is the most exciting thing that’s happened,” said Mike Lee, district president.
The project began in 2010 when the Department of Environmental Quality identified that the town of Pablo’s water system did not meet in-flow requirements. This meant that new businesses and anything other than single family dwellings could not be built in Pablo because the water system could not support such growth.
“If we had two fires at once, we would have had to decide whose house to save,” said Patrick Sorrell, District Manager of the Lake County Water and Sewer District, emphasizing the need for the expansion.
The project’s funds were raised by securing grants, increasing user fees by $1 per month and by tapping into the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund offered through the Environment Protection Agency. Every step of the project met or came in under budget. All contractors used for the project were Montana firms and the construction materials were American made.
“A lot of communities wait until it’s too late and operate under crisis mode,” said Shari Johnson, an engineer for the project, “but this project involved a lot of pre-planning. Nobody thinks about their water and sewer until it doesn’t work.”
