Reservoir completion delayed due to weather

Spring weather has delayed reservoir construction near Green River.

The raw water reservoir project was initially planned to be a 17-month project, has been under construction for more than a year. The project was originally planned to be completed by late June, but is now expected to reach completion by mid to late summer.

Frequent rain and hail storms passing through the area have delayed the project with shorter work days, but the worst was at the beginning of May. The construction's biggest set back was the heavy rain storm that hit Green River during Mother's Day weekend, Bryan Seppie, director of planning and engineering at the Joint Powers Water Board, said.

Almost 3 feet of water covered one end of the reservoir.

"There was a significant amount of water in there that had to be pumped out," Seppie said. "There was fresh dirt, so it eroded pretty easily."

The water Green River received over the weekend eroded the embankment, which had to be reworked.

"We had to redo a lot of the fine grading that had been done at that time," he said.

The water wading in the low end of the reservoir bottom had to be pumped out and was drained down the storm channel, back into the river.

With setbacks due to spring weather, combined with waiting for winter temperatures to rise for certain portions of the project, the reservoir is about 80-85 percent done. The soil cement, which will cover much of the surface area could not be done until night-time temperatures were above freezing.

"The majority of the earth work that has gone on is with soils that are within the site," he said. "So much of this work had to wait until spring."

The last portion of work will require a significant amount of time.

When the reservoir construction is finished and the reservoir is filled in with water, there is still about a month of work to be done before it can be utilized.

Testing requirements when the reservoir is complete will take about 30 days.

"Before we can use it, it will easily be the end of August," Seppie said.

A lot of the finish work is yet to be completed, Seppie said.

"Everything looks like it will in final form, but the finishing touches aren't there yet," he said.