The Caney River Pump Station is back online after problems with the supply chain kept it offline for more than a year following a much-needed renovation, Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen said Monday.
The station was taken off-line in mid-2021 for a renovation, eliminating the City’s ability to pull 4 millions of water per day from the Caney River. The shut-down was intended to take a few months, but supply chain issues caused by the pandemic wreaked havoc with that plan.
“The motor controls were ordered in October 2021, and the manufacturer still has not delivered these items, which are normally an eight- to 10-week lead time.” said Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen. “In October 2022, staff instructed the contractor to procure these motor controls from any and all available sources. The contractor located compatible controls in January 2023 that were left over from a Texas project. However, these controls had to be reworked to meet project specifications. They were delivered and installed last week. The pump station was turned on and used over the weekend.”
Lauritsen said the project was expected to be completed by March 2022, which would have had the pump station off-line during the winter months, when area demand is the lowest. But due to the delays in procuring parts that kept the pump station offline for more than 18 months, combined with the severe drought that started in June 2022, the 2 billion gallons of water that would have normally come from the river had to be supplemented by Hulah Lake, which has had a significant impact.
“While having the river station back in operation allows us to minimize the amount of water we draw from the lakes, it does not change the overall water supply and need to be vigilant with water conservation,” Lauritsen said.
Lauritsen said as of this week, Hulah Lake is down to 42 percent, with Copan hitting 59 percent.