By Tony Cantú
Contributing Writer
 
Long in non-compliance with regulatory standards, Alamo Heights recently took the first step toward building a new water tower that will cost nearly $3 million to construct.

At their Nov. 10 meeting, Alamo Heights City Council members authorized the city manager to hire Phoenix Fabricators and Erectors Inc. at a cost of $2.8 million. Plans call for construction of a 600,000-gallon elevated storage tank, along with repainting of an existing one that has half the capacity.

In a memorandum to the mayor and council members, Assistant City Manager/Director of Public Works Shawn Eddy explained the city did not comply with minimum water storage standards, which ultimately affects water pressure when fighting fires.

In a subsequent interview, he confirmed water pressure in vicinity of Alamo Heights High School is low to the point where combating a fire there would be problematic – a serious scenario that has been discussed by council and members of the public alike.

“The city of Alamo Heights is not in compliance with a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) requirement to provide a minimum of 200 gallons of storage per effective water connection,” Eddy wrote in his memo. He noted the city provides only 158 gallons of water storage per connection among the city’s 3,483 effective connections.

Municipal adherence to storage-to-connection ratios would give the city’s residents – some of who have complained of low water pressure during council meetings – bolstered water flow at their homes. However, the issue is lent further urgency in invoked scenarios related to firefighters connecting their hoses to fire hydrants during conflagrations.

Such a scenario was vividly recreated in 2006, when city consultants PBS&J undertook a study on the city’s overall water pressure. The centerpiece of the study revolved around the vicinity of Alamo Heights High School – with alarming conclusions.

“As part of that evaluation, they modeled a three-hour fire at the high school and what they found was that during sustained fire-fighting activity the water pressure dropped to near zero,” Eddy said in a telephone interview. “We would not have adequate pressure for us to fight a prolonged fire.”

Completion of the water tower project is expected by January 2010, Eddy said.