At Bridgeport Municipal Complex this morning, Superintendent of Public Utilities Jared V. Cummons brought the Bridgeport Utility Board up to speed on a water supply project, anticipated to generate some nice revenue for the city.

 

The water well project was recently implemented just outside of the city garage and beside the community garden on West Main Street.

 

“It started as a way to get additional water for water resiliency – something we could treat and pump into our system,” Cummons explained, “But this water source ended up being too high in salt content to make treatment feasible, so we started looking at other options.”

 

The city made contact with an oil and gas company (KLX) which was interested in purchasing the water for fracking purposes. 

 

“So we went on with the well drilling, put a pump down in there and started testing,” Cummons said.

 

Most recent testing indicated that there are 466 gallons of water flowing per minute.

 

“That means we can fill those trucks up in 10 minutes or so,” he said.

 

The city anticipates servicing 10 trucks per day and producing revenues in the amount of $111,800 during the first fiscal year of the project.

 

As the water cannot be consumed, the city still seeks a secondary water source. The revenues generated from the well will help offset that source – which is yet to be determined, said City Manager Kim Haws. The water will be tested again, once a large amount has been expelled.

The water will be accessed via an electronic key card system.

 

Also today, BUB members voted to approve the purchase of Samsung Galaxy tablets, iPads and BoardDocs software for a total cost of $7,900; $3,150 for seven tablets; $3,000 for software and $1,800 for two iPads.

 

Finance Director Monica Musgrave provided a positive financial report. As of June 30 – the end of the fiscal year – a balance of $159,650.68 remains in the water fund and is available for projects. It’s been a good year with revenues at 104 percent and expenditures at 91 percent.

 

“Expenses remain right at or under budget with revenues at $98,460.16 over expenses,” Musgrave said.

 

The sewer replacement funds are also in good shape, standing at $1,021,879.04; those monies also available for projects.

 

Expenditures in that account are also in or under budget, coming in at 87 percent; revenues at 107 percent.

 

Revenues are up in both funds with the exception of connection fees which are a little low for both water and sewer.

 

Facilitated by Mayor Andy Lang, today’s monthly BUB meeting also included a lengthy discussion about water and sewer upgrades, as well as paving projects, delivered by City Engineer Beth Fox. Read about that HERE.