At the March 5 Kenai City Council meeting, members approved an emergency declaration by Rick Koch to move forward with finalizing the new city water well.
Koch, the Kenai City Manager, explained what the approval of the purchase order was for.
Koch: “It’s a technical issue regarding the particle size of the sand in the aquifers, its very well graded and all nearly the same size and its difficult sometimes to size a well screen that keeps the sand out and just the water comes through. In summary what it is is that we’re getting too much sand that’s coming through the screen. There’s another process that we’re going to go ahead and accomplish that will slide another screen inside that well with a what’s called an artificial pack around it which is a larger grain sand that we’ll install around the inner screen.”
Due to changes in regulations over the past couple years the city of Kenai was down to one main production well which was not producing enough water during the warmer and busier months of summer.
Koch said that time was of the essence to start using the already drilled well.
Koch: “The second well we’ve drilled is about a thousand gallons a minute and we’ll have enough water to last us at projection out to 2025, 2030. We’re pleased that we have a well that produces a lot of water we just have to clean up how the sand comes in.”
The contractor is slated to move ahead with the final steps on Monday March 10.