WASILLA -- Residents of Garden Terrace need no longer worry about "aggressive water" eroding their copper pipes and leaving calcium spots on dishes, but a few residents there complained in early February that water pressure is now too low.
The pressure problem is fixed, Wasilla public works director Archie Giddings said recently. Water pressure at a new well serving the subdivision was dialed up to its maximum output on Feb. 8, he said.
Water pressure is tough to maintain on the line, which pushes the water uphill for roughly a mile.
Giddings said the 56 properties in Garden Terrace, 1.2 miles east of the city limits, get water from a city water system at The Ranch, a 1,000-acre subdivision even farther outside the city.
"(The pressure) wasn't really that low. It met all the standards. It was only low relative to what they were used to," Giddings said. "Garden Terrace is higher (in elevation) than The Ranch. The wells are down in the low end of The Ranch"
Wasilla took over a community water system at The Ranch last year, in preparation for extending a city water line to Garden Terrace. For now, The Ranch is providing Garden Terrace residents with good, clean water.
Putting Garden Terrace and The Ranch on city water, a project estimated to cost $3.5 million, is part of an arrangement with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for Wasilla to operate the failed Garden Terrace community water system.
The borough operated the Garden Terrace water system for several years. The state also closely monitored "aggressive water" in that system.
According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, aggressive water typically has a pH level that makes it eager to consume minerals. When water consumes minerals in the pipes carrying it, those minerals are absorbed into the water. Eroded pipes are left behind.
"They were having to add a corrosion inhibitor into the water of the old well in order to make it nonaggressive. And that left calcium spots," said Lynn Lowman, program coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Lowman said recently that high copper concentrations could be dangerous for people with liver problems or Wilson's disease, a genetic disorder that causes excessive copper accumulation in the brain or liver.
Garden Terrace water was tested twice annually and with treatment remained at acceptable levels.
Now those wells have been shut down in favor of water from The Ranch.
"It's nice to have a municipal system taking on these other connections," Lowman said. "We're all excited about this water system helping them out."
"It is much better water. We don't have to filter it at all," said Abby Boulevard resident Bonnie Sokoloski, who lives in the subdivision.
Her husband, Mike, in 2005 described how a glass of water left on a nightstand overnight developed an oily film at the top by morning.
Sokoloski said her family still buys bottled water out of habit, but water from the new well tastes good. She's waiting to get a water quality report, she said.
Lowman said community water information is compiled at the state Drinking Water Watch Web site, map.dec.state.ak.us/eh/dww/index.jsp. T
he Ranch wells previously served only 15-20 residents, too few people to require testing reports, she said. New reports must be submitted by June 30.
In return for Wasilla's agreement to extend its water line to the subdivision, the borough agreed to replace pipes that carry water from the community well to individual homes. Many of those pipes have eroded over time, Giddings said. That process is expected to take more than a year, property owners there said.
When the city water line is connected, Wasilla utilities will extend past Hyer Road, traditionally a dividing line between Wasilla and Palmer. Giddings said he has spent $1.5 million in state and federal grants on the water line project.
He's looking for $2 million more to complete the work, he said.
Daily News reporter Rindi White can be reached at rwhite@adn.com or 352-6709.
