Edwin Porter, Hamilton’s director of Infrastructure, said construction will begin this spring ahead of the construction of the elevated water tank.
“You’ll have to start with the underground distribution piping to the new tank location, and then you install the foundations,” he said. “After that, the elevated tank itself takes about nine to 12 months to fabricate, and it will be erected after the underground piping work is complete.”
The booster station ― a facility that increases water pressure to provide water to an elevated area ― was installed in 1998, but the water flow has increased tenfold. When it was installed 25, the area only required about 20,000 gallons of water a day. However, today, the area requires 10 times the amount of water, receiving on average about 200,000 gallons of water a day.
The tank will also increase the reliability of water service to the area as they need to run the booster station full-time, which is inefficient.
“When we put in this water tower, it will increase the efficiency and decrease the electric load because we’ll pump less water because it will be stored in the tank,” Porter said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The project will cost about $7.5 million, but the city received $3 million from Butler County’s portion of American Rescue Plan Act money. The city will pay for the remaining price tag.
City Council approved the borrowing of an amount not to exceed $15 million for several water projects, including funding for the new water tower. City Finance Director Dave Jones said the six water projects will, in reality, cost closer to $11 million, and the additional amount approved would only be borrowed if additional projects are identified.
Enterprise Park is home to various types of businesses, including medical facilities, advanced manufacturing, industrial facilities, and food and beverage.
“Our team certainly believes that emphasizing increased capacity and quality of our water infrastructure will increase opportunities to a larger audience of prospects,” said Hamilton Economic Development Manager Jody Gunderson, adding 133 acres are remaining to be developed in Hamilton Enterprise Park.
Porter said the tower will also satisfy the anticipated business growth in the park and nearby residential growth.
“This water tower is to be constructed so it can serve all reasonable users in the developable areas adjacent to Hamilton Enterprise Park,” he said. “That’s barring any significant water tower that would be a-typical, but we sized it appropriately so that all current and all anticipated loads would be served for the full build-out of the Hamilton Enterprise Park.”
On average, the city provides just under 15 million gallons of water to customers per day.
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