The Kenai City Council voted to increase revenues and appropriations in the water and sewer special revenue and water and sewer capital project funds to provide funding for the Wellhouse #1 Relocation Project. They also authorized the issuance of a contract for the project.
City of Kenai Finance Director Terry Eubank:
“We had Wellhouse #1 was damaged I believe in the January 2018 earthquake that we had. That damage, actually, I believe started with the prior earthquake. Basically what was happening underneath of that facility was during those shakes, the ground would almost liquify and the building itself started to subside and, if you went into the building, the well, the old production well, the casing had actually jacked out of the concrete about 4-6 inches because of the settling of the building. We filed a claim with our insurance company and we have two options when we file those claims, they will pay to rebuild the facility on the existing site, or they will pay and we can relocate the building to an alternate site if we chose to. They don’t participate 100% of those relocation costs, because that well is no longer in production, it produces arsenic that exceeds federal limits now. So we haven’t used that well in sometime. We’re proposing to relocate that building to the existing well #2.”
The Kenai City Administration chose to award Polar North Construction for the base amount of $242,961.40, which will allow the existing structure to be located on Shot Gun Drive and placed on a new foundation where it will be used as a storage facility. The remaining well house infrastructure will be demolished, abandoned and capped in compliance with the requirements of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
Ordinance No. 3215-2021 passed the Kenai City Council by a unanimous vote.