Things have been progressing, albeit not as fast as we may want. The new well is in and has passed all of DEQ’s water quality tests. We have pumped water at varying rates with no impact (water level change) to the other wells on our system. Both of these items are excellent news. We tested well #3 pumping at up to 400 gpm (gallons per minute) with no effect to the water level in our other wells. This is a much higher rate than we would normally run at, we are working to get the new well running at 250 gpm for normal operation.

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Please Sign up for text alerts
We have a text alert mechanism in place that many, but certainly not all members have signed up for. This is the only good way we have to quickly notify members of problems, outages, and scheduled maintenance. To sign up for this service please send an email to garwoodwater@gmail.com, tell us you want to sign up for text alerts and provide us your name and the phone number to send the alerts to. Once we verify you are a member, we will add your number to the notification list. We do not share your number with anyone else; we only use it for alerting members when needed.

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If you have already signed up, we thank you.

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A couple of Expected Questions

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Why not run at the maximum rate?

Our water system delivers water to members from our storage tanks, the well pumps water into those tanks when the water level drops a certain amount.  When you turn a well on, it will initially pump a little bit of sediment (i.e., sand) when it first starts; this is normal for new wells until they are fully developed. How long it takes that sediment to clear depends on the wells geology and how frequently the well runs; this is normal for all wells.  For this reason DEQ requires that community wells flush the startup water into a field, and not into the water system. We are working to get a good balance of not wasting too much water on its startup flush, and supply a large amount of water to our system. So far this looks like 250 gpm is a good rate.

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When do we think it will be live, and the moratorium lifted?

We believe it will be Q1 of 2025. This really depends on DEQ and various additional tests to the system. The startup test and waste water field need to be verified and approved. We also need to complete some additional construction on the well pump house, connect in all of the new electronics and plumbing to connect it to the system, and a few other supporting tasks. Most of the delays are other entities beyond our control.