Campground Water System Rehabilitation

The public drinking water systems serving the Baker Creek Campground and the Upper Lehman Creek Campground reported elevated levels of aluminum concentrations that exceed the secondary drinking water standards of 200 µg/L. Nevada’s Division of Environmental Protection (DEP), Department of Conservation & Natural Resources issued violations to the Great Basin National Park that required corrective actions for system compliance, per Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) Chapter 445A.455. DEP corrective actions included:

• Acquisition of another suitable supply of water which is economically feasible to obtain, available in sufficient quantity, and of significantly higher or acceptable quality;
• Consolidation with an adjacent public water system that provides water of sufficient quantity and quality;
• Treatment of the source water and any other actions sufficient to return the water system to compliance.

This project provided a preliminary engineering report (PER) that discussed potential water supply options and water treatment technologies with a conceptual design of the preferred water treatment technology. A review of water chemistry data for both the Baker Springs Campground and Upper Lehman Creek Campground water systems indicated both water supply sources had corrosive properties with low buffering capacity. Therefore, aluminum could be associated with piping and/or appurtenance corrosion. For example, some galvanized steel piping and corrugated metal piping have low aluminum concentrations that could be released in a corrosive environment. The goal of the PER was to assess the potential source(s) of the aluminum in the spring water and to identify the appropriate water treatment technology necessary to reduce the aluminum concentrations to levels acceptable to DEP. 

Services Provided by HECO Engineers:

• Project management
• Project design
• Preliminary engineering
• Condition assessment
• Environmental engineering