Town Council Hears Update on Regional Water Supply

By DAVID QUESENBERRY

Patriot Publishing 

At the Pulaski Town Council’s meeting Tuesday night, water took center stage as Council received an update on regional alternatives to deal with the Town’s water supply issues.

Steven Steele, Vice-President and Key Account Manager of CHA Consulting reviewed current findings and alternatives under consideration to help in maintaining the water supply to the Town.

Prior to the start of the review, Town Manager Todd Day told Council that he had sent out an email to other communities and agencies concerning a team response to the situation at Gatewood.

“Just for the record at this time,” Day said, “there is no backup water source for the Town of Pulaski. I’m not going to try to sugarcoat that or dress that up, that’s just point blank a fact. What we’re looking at now are other ways that we can work with the PSA, Radford and any other entity to get other additional ties.”

The situation he said was not created by this or other Councils, but it was an event that had never before happened.

“We will absolutely be taking on the task of repairing that shortfall,” he said.

Steele began his presentation showing a map of the regional water systems for Radford, Pulaski County and the Town of Pulaski and how they were connected. He noted the three water plants (Radford, PSA, Pulaski Town) and the maximum amount of water production from each that would be available for users other than their own customers with current plant staff.

For Radford the available amount of water for other users would be 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD); PSA 500,000 gallons per day, and the Pulaski Town Plant 450,000 gallons per day without James Hardie’s consumption.

The most important system pipeline was an 8-inch line connecting Dublin with Radford, which would allow water to be passed from Radford on through Dublin to Pulaski County and on to the Town of Pulaski. The line was crucial in that it determined the capacity at which water could be sent from Radford.

Steele told Council that a mock exercise was held this summer to see just how much water Radford could add to the regional system in addition to what they provided their customers.

Under this scenario, the Radford water plant operated 24/7 for one week supplying the Morgan’s Cut Tank and Dublin, while sending as much flow to Dublin as it could. The Morgan’s Cut tank was supplied, but the supply to Dublin was just short during high demand periods.

This required the Pulaski County plant to supplement the flow to supply Dublin.

The exercise indicated that the flow from Radford reached a peak of 1.1 million/MGD and reached a pressure of 250 psi which was limited by the capacity of the line.

The goal of the study, Steele said, was to determine how existing infrastructure could be used for regional water use without resorting to expensive construction of new facilities.

The conclusion reached by the exercise was that the City of Radford has more capacity to offer than the existing infrastructure can accommodate.

Concerning meeting the Town’s total water supply needs through a regional approach, Steele said one way would be upgrades to the County’s intake and water treatment plant. Steele said this would involve the County becoming a partner which would involve an intake and plant expansion so both the County and Town would be served without assistance from the Radford plant.

Another option would be to use in-line pumps to allow the eight-inch line from Radford to accommodate higher flows.

Another option would be to upgrade the force mains by having parallel pipe-lines to increase capacity without the need to invest in pumps.

The total supply scenario involved the Town of Pulaski being unable to supply water to its citizens.

To provide the Town a partial water supply would require operational changes as follows: 24-hr shifts at the Town’s water treatment plant, which reduces the water leaving Gatewood by 38 percent. This change has been made.

Recharging of the reservoir has been slow despite recent rains, because the dryness of the surrounding terrain will absorb the rainfall like a sponge. Only if the ground has sufficient moisture will the rainfall run off into the reservoir.

Another option also done, was transferring James Hardie to the County’s water plant which reduces the drain on Gatewood by an additional 10 percent. A final option under consideration would be to drill new wells at the Raw Water Intake to supplement the reservoir.

Concerning how many days the Town would have water, Steele presented a worst-case scenario in which there would be no additional rain.

If any operational changes were not made, the Town would have 63 days of storage to December 8, 2026. If the operational changes were made the days of supply would increase to 101 days to January 15, 2027. Adding the James Hardie usage transferred to the County to the mix would result in 119 days of storage to approximately February 2, 2027. Historically Gatewood usually recharges to full pond, 450 million gallons, at the end of January. Steele said that given this history, it would still be responsible to consider other ways to address this problem given the resources available.

In a question as to drawing from Hogan’s Dam, Day responded that the Town’s legal counsel had contacted the legal counsel for Hogan’s. He was told that there were no objections to getting water from the Hogan’s impoundment. Day also said he and Town staff did inspect and test the valves at Hogan’s which worked and released water. The raw water from Hogan’s would enter the creek and then enter the raw water intake for transport to the Town’s water plant for processing.

In other presentations, Council heard from Chief William Kelly from the Pulaski Police Department concerning a Deer Abatement Program for the Town.

Chief Kelly reviewed the problems caused by deer over-population and the impact upon the community. The most hazardous problems of over-population were deer/vehicle collisions and Lyme’s Disease.

A responsible management program, he said had to account for public safety; public perception; operational burden on the police; legal requirements; and a recognition that success was hard to measure.

Council, he noted had few management options such as non-lethal means, traditional hunting; and lethal management.

Using lethal management would require a Department of Wildlife Resources permit; specific locations for harvesting deer; a specified time where lethal management would be allowed; special training for officers; and suppressed firearms.

Cost of such a program would be approximately $4,000.

Following discussion, Council gave the Department the authorization to proceed further with consideration of a deer management program

Austin Painter, Project Engineer, reviewed cost estimates concerning the Streetscape Project between N. Washington and Madison St. He said the Town had qualified for $2 million of VDOT transportation grant funds for the project. However, the project would require, if all work was contracted out, $1.72 million in local matching funds.

Trying to use in-house personnel for part or all of the work would result in expenditures in local funds of $874,325 or $233,000. However, given the large amount of the local match required, Manager Day said such funds would have to come from the General Fund, which could not support the local match required for the project.

“I know your budget Mayor,” he said, “and it’s not going to stand it.” Council elected to not proceed with the project at this time.

Council also heard a presentation from Aggregate Capital concerning creating an agricultural technology center in the former Jefferson School. The proposed project would have the final goal of becoming the center of a cluster for agricultural technology which would seek to bring jobs, investment, and business into the community.

In other business Council appointed Joel Burchett to the Board of the Agency on Aging; Amy Webb to the Planning Commission; and Kevin Ritz to the Architectural Review Board. It also approved an ordinance rezoning the former physician offices at 2460 Lee Highway from Residential Office District to General Business District.

The next scheduled meeting of the Pulaski Town Council will be at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 20, 2026 in the Council Chambers of the Town Municipal Building at 42 First Street, N.W.