Culinary water well almost complete, Ephraim to move on to other infrastructure improvements

By James Tilson

Associate Editor

6-13-2019

EPHRAIM—Digging out the new culinary water well in Ephraim is almost finished, and the city will start working on other infrastructure improvements over the rest of the summer.

According to Ephraim city engineer Bryan Kimball, the digging of the new well “had some hiccups,” but is nearly complete with only a few technical requirements left to finish.

“We just have the final pump testing of the capacity of the aquifer to help size the pump appropriately,” said Kimball. Presently, there is a concrete cap on the hole to prevent ground contamination, and the city is getting ready to go to the next phase of construction.

“The next phase is the completion of the pump house building, and the multiple connecting pipelines that will tie the new well into our system. That work will be ongoing in several phases throughout the summer, with some portions of that work going into the fall.”

Kimball added the well may be available for emergency use in the late summer and fall, should water shortages again rear their head. “Even though we had favorable weather so far,” said Kimball, “it could still turn bad and present a problem for the city if the rain all dries up…”