A project to rehabilitate Parkersburg’s water tower is underway.
The tower needs a new coat of paint on the inside to help prevent corrosion and extend the tower’s life. Hunter Maitland with the public works department says the tower will be drained, and a temporary pressure tank will be installed.
“We are going to start draining the water tower,” Maitland says. “And once that starts to drain, we’ll switch it over to this pressure tank. From there, the water tower won’t have any water in it, and this pressure tank will sustain the pressure that the water tower was holding beforehand.”
The water tower holds 400,000 gallons, but the temporary tank will hold 10,000 gallons, which city staff says lasts approximately five hours of regular usage.
Due to the decreased capacity, Tim Kolder with the public works department says city staff requests those in the community to cease irrigation.
“We’re going to ask the community to step up and join us in this project by helping us cut down on water usage, especially in the irrigation side of things of the lawns,” Kolder says. “We’re going to ask that on the 15th of August, after that date, that we no longer irrigate the lawns. Just to help so we can maintain the pressure, maintain the storage capacity in this tank. We definitely don’t want to lose the pressure. If we do start losing the gallons in that storage capacity from a lot of irrigation lines running, we’re going to start losing pressure in town also. So we’re hoping to avoid that.”
Kolder says the temporary tank will be in use on Thursday, August 15. The project is expected to take approximately two months.
Interview with public works department members:
