Royal port, city discuss water feasibility study

by Matthew Weaver<br>Herald Senior Staff Writer
| April 1, 2008 9:00 PM

ROYAL SLOPE - Port of Royal Slope commissioners and the Royal City City Council may team up on a feasibility study on their water systems.

The port district and the city council met in mid-March to discuss the study, after an engineer from the Department of Health contacted the port district about extending their waterlines to the adjacent Hiawatha Industrial Park.

The move would consolidate some small water systems having trouble staying in compliance with the department, port Director Cathy Potter explained.

"Knowing that the city had planned to eventually extend their waterlines to the Hiawatha Industrial Park, it seems like a good time to discuss a possible inter-tie," Potter said.

The city's waterline is approximately 2 miles from the industrial park, while the port's water line is "basically" across the road.

The port and city hope to figure out whether the city might be able to run water through the port's system and build a distribution system to deliver water to the park and whether the two entities should do it together or one entity by themselves.

The study should include the costs involved, funding sources available and whether other smaller systems would want to join.

"The port's concern is in retaining the current businesses in this area," Potter said. "One of the businesses is the largest employer in our area with 250 employees."

A letter of interest on doing a joint feasibility study was drafted and set to the department, asking them for funding help.

Although the port and the city both have stand-alone systems in compliance with the department, Potter said there is an advantage to doing an inter-tie because it would give both entities an extra backup system.

"With the current open mindedness of both the city and port, we look forward to supporting each other, whether we do an inter-tie or not," she said. "There have been difficulties in the past between the port and the city, and it's had to do with an inter-tie. I believe it's been tried, or tried to discuss, about three times before."

Potter said the port and city are waiting to hear from the Department of Health whether the department can come up with the funding for the study. She anticipated receiving word from the department within the next two weeks whether the port and city can move forward with the project.