Back In The Flow Landmark’s Return To Service Means Post Falls Will Maintain Half-Day Water Reserve

Big, orange and empty, the graffiti-covered water tank looming over Post Falls has been reborn.

Now a spiffy green, the tank looks good as new, though it’s been rusting from early retirement for the past 10 years.

On Wednesday, a painter put the finishing touches on the blue-and-black Post Falls logo. Next week, the landmark is due to be baptized with 500,000 gallons of water.

That means Post Falls’ water woes won’t return until growth once again gets the better of the city Public Works Department.

Last year, the city’s water reserves dropped to dangerously low levels as dry weather threatened to scorch lawns and suck the city reservoir dry.

Declaring an emergency, city officials rationed water, allowing residents to water their lawns only every other day.

With the completion of a second 2-million-gallon reservoir in the Highlands neighborhood late last summer and the newly refurbished Black Bay tank, the city now has a half-day’s storage of water.

“We’re not swimming in water, but we’re better off than we were,” said the city’s public works director, Paul Diener. “Basically, you need enough storage to handle any unforeseen demand, like a big fire or if the pumps go down.”

The tank, built in 1962, went out of service about 10 years ago when the first 2-million-gallon reservoir was built in the Highlands.

The difference in elevations between the two made the tank unusable. Being lower, the tank simply would have overflowed if connected to the water system.

As part of the $115,000 refurbishment, the city purchased a pump to equalize pressure between the tank and the reservoirs.

Originally, city officials thought the old tank might have to be scrapped altogether and a new one built. A new tank of equal size would have cost about $500,000, they estimated.

“We looked at it and decided it was still in good enough condition if we chased out some of the rust and painted it,” said Bill Melvin, city engineer.

The cost of improvements was covered by fees that builders pay the city for water service.

, DataTimes