Urbandale receives regional water update; utility outlines ASR well plan, capacity needs and lead-line inventory

Urbandale city leaders received an update on Central Iowa Water Works (CIWW) and Urbandale Water Utility operations, capacity planning and near-term projects at a City Council meeting where utility staff described planned treatment-plant expansions, a local aquifer storage-and-recovery (ASR) well and the status of the lead service line inventory.

The regional authority formed by a group of metro utilities now serves a large portion of Central Iowa and is planning treatment capacity increases to meet projected demand through 2050. The Urbandale Water Utility also described a locally owned ASR well intended to store water in the Jordan aquifer for summer use and outlined timelines, costs and community impacts.

Tammy Madsen, executive director of Central Iowa Water Works, told the council that CIWW is a regional authority with 12 founding member agencies and “we serve over 600,000 water users.” She said the regional network currently has roughly 125.5 million gallons per day (MGD) of treatment capacity but that demand and water-quality constraints will require growth: “What we need to be able to treat is 208,200,000 gallons per day by the year 2050.” Madsen described active planning and RFQs for new or expanded facilities including a planned West plant near Van Meter, an expansion at the Grimes plant and further expansion at the Saylorville Water Treatment Plant.

Neil Weiss, general manager of Urbandale Water Utility, gave local details about the distribution system and Urbandale’s purchase capacity from CIWW. “There’s roughly 250 miles of public water main in the water distribution system,” Weiss said, and described Urbandale’s west and east pressure zones, existing towers and the LP Moon pumping/reservoir site that supplies much of…