City's Newly-Reconstructed Water Tank Nearly Ready to Go Online

Members of the Holtville City Council, along with City Manager Alex Meyerhoff and Water Dept. employees
gathered to break ground on the city's 4.5 million-gallon water tank earlier this year.

WORDS AND PHOTO BY LUKE PHILLIPS

   More than two years after Holtville's reserve water tank was knocked off line by the Easter Sunday Earthquake in 2010, City Engineer Jack Holt is reporting that the tank's replacement is ready to go into operation.

   At a meeting of the Holtville City Council Monday, Holt said that contractors will be finishing the last of the construction work on the tank's new ultra-violet light filtration system this week and inspectors from the Department of Public Health will be making their final checks before the system is brought online.

   Holtville City Manager Alex Meyerhoff told the council that the city will be planning a "valve-opening event" to celebrate the tank's completition.

   "The project is pretty much right on schedule," Meyerhoff said. "I think it was a monumental accomplishment that was made in record time."

   Holt also told the council that work will begin on November 5th on a project to fix a leaking pipeline that's located underneath one of the filtration structures at the city's water treatment facility.

   When asked by Mayor Jerry Brittsan whether or not the leak was also caused by the earthquake, Holt said that the earthquake was not the original cause of the leak, but might have made it worse.

   "The earthquake could have aggravated it, but this has been going on for a long, long time," Holt said.