Belgrade to pay $600K to fix two wells

The destruction of Belgrade’s Well #8 is “simply an act of God situation” for City Manager Neil Cardwell.

“Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the most inopportune time,” said Cardwell, during the Belgrade City Council meeting discussing the well’s destruction on June 1.

During the meeting Cardwell announced that the well experienced a “catastrophic failure” a month prior when it ingested sand, gravel, and other debris, destroying the filtration system, the pump, and other assemblies.

It sent debris and sand into the pipes of eight different homes, but Cardwell reassured residents at the meeting that those homes were been taken care of, and their water service is restored.

The Belgrade City Manager’s Office released an Emergency Declaration and Authorization of Expenditure on May 27 officially declaring the destroyed pumps an emergency condition. During the meeting, the City Council unanimously agreed to pass the resolution and allow City Manager Cardwell to authorize emergency purchases to fix the wells.

The reserves were part of a 2024 resolution that put Belgrade’s water system rates in place. Cardwell said the new rate helped create a small reserve fund for “unforeseen events” like these ones.

Well #8, located at Belgrade’s Lewis and Clark Park, is less than a year old and now requires a “total replacement” per Cardwell. It’s a critical well for Belgrade residents and has a flow rate of 1,000 gallons per minute. That capacity is currently unavailable to Belgrade residents.

A new pump costs $250,000 including the cost of removing, re-sterilizing, and adding additional sand filtration measures to the well. The city is looking at a new filtration system with glass beads. Cardwell believes this type of filter can mitigate similar issues in the future.

Belgrade’s Well #5, on Yukon Lane, is “effectively offline,” within the past few weeks, per Cardwell.

After residents noticed cloudy water, the city determined the water level in the well dropped too low. Further investigation determined that there was a decrease in the overall production level, with air in the well lines.

It’s been more than 30 years since Belgrade has seen the water level drop so low that a well becomes unusable, per Cardwell.

$100,000 from the city’s reserve fund is allocated toward investigating solutions for Well #5, before it is fixed.

$600,000 is the total cost for fixing well #5 and well #8.

Additionally, the check valve at Well #3 recently failed and needs to be replaced, but the general operating budget is slated to cover it.

Amid these well issues, Cardwell told the Chronicle that there are no problems with Belgrade’s drinking water and that the city is not at risk of running out of water, especially with its’ water tower reserves.

Cardwell urged Belgrade residents to pay attention to irrigation restrictions. He said the city uses three to four times more water in the summer than in the winter.

“The vast majority of that is going on to our lawns,” Cardwell said.

The Belgrade Police Department’s code enforcement team is hanging fliers on doors of residents in violation of the restriction. Failure to follow restrictions is a criminal violation, per Belgrade city code.