Table of Contents
Quail Lake as it appeared in the spring of 1991.
Photo by Murdock Aero Photo.
About the time the city was diving into plans to build its first water treatment
plant, a significant move was made to hire the water and power department's
first in-house engineer. Phillip Solomon, a civil engineering graduate of
the University of Utah, joined the department in November of 1985. Originally
form Salt Lake City, he moved his family to St. George after working as
a civil structural engineer with Bechtel National in San Francisco.
Among other projects, Solomon got his feet wet in the department by helping
engineer the water treatment plant at Quail Creek. Design of the treatment
plant began in 1986.
Originally the water outlet in the dike had been placed at the bottom of
the reservoir. In order for the concept to work, multiple-level outlets
would have to be built. It took 45 days to go back and cut the new outlets
into the dike
As plans continued, the city made an important decision to feed the treatment
plant with a split stream, part coming from the reservoir, and part coming
through a bypass line directly from the Virgin River. This was done to reduce
the hardness of the water going through the plant, since the hardness of
the water coming directly out of the reservoir would have required a much
more expensive plant to treat. But a side benefit of the plan came a few
years later when, on New Year's Day of 1989, the Quail Lake Dike collapsed,
rendering the reservoir useless for several months. In spite of the flood,
the city treatment plant, which began operation in July of 1989, was still
able to process water from the bypass line and keep the city supplied with
water.
The ensuing flood from the Quail Lake dike failure was one of the worst
disasters in southern Utah history, causing more than $12 million in damage,
yet, miraculously, no lives were lost.
The city's culinary water treatment plant was officially dedicated on December
1, 1989. The city bonded in the amount of $15 million at an interest rate
of 5.5 percent to build it. Of the total, approximately $9 million went
to build the plant, and $6 million built the 14-mile, 36-inch pipeline which
delivers the treated water to the city. The 36-inch line is twice the size
of the city's next largest pipeline, an 18-inch line running from Gunlock.
The Quail Creek treatment plant, managed by Superintendent David Friess,
had the potential of delivering 10 million gallons of water a day to St.
George. Presently, the source supplies water to sections of the city south
of 700 South, delivering from 8 to 9 million gallons a day.
Moving to a surface water source was a significant step for St. George.
For the first time the city had to gain state treatment certification.
During this period, a 2.5 million gallon storage tank was built at Bloomington
Hills to complement an existing 1.3 million gallon tank. These, combined
with a 1 million gallon tank at Bloomington Country Club, as well as the
other existing tanks, put the city's culinary water storage capacity at
26 million gallons.
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Articles taken from Making the Desert Bloom
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2012 City of St. George |
