University is one of Ruston’s newest water utilities customers
Laura Bond, Reporter
11-10-2009
When students at Louisiana Tech University drink from a water fountain or take a shower, they are now utilizing a resource provided through the city of Ruston.A few months ago, the university’s water tower was dismantled. Tech abandoned two of its water wells and joined thousands of local residents as a city water customer.
Tech’s third water well is on standby and is still being used for irrigation purposes. The other two wells have been taken by the city, but are not being used.
“We’ve done fine with our nine water wells, but there’s nothing wrong with these,” said Troy Whitman, city water utilities operations manager. “This will give our existing wells a little bit of a break when we start using the other two wells probably within six to eight months.”
During the most recent Ruston City Council meeting, the city received authorization to enter into an agreement with the university for water distribution improvements. Whitman said this action will allow the city to take ownership of and work on Tech’s water lines.
About 20 new water meters have been added throughout Tech to monitor water usage. To help offset the larger customer base the city is taking on, a new tower with the capacity to store two million gallons of water will soon be built on Memorial Drive.
Construction is anticipated to begin in the next couple of months, and the project should take 18 to 24 months to complete.
Getting out of the water business and allowing the city to take over the system made sense considering the condition and limitations of Tech’s water system, said Sam Wallace, Tech director of facility and support services.
“Our system was at a point where it would have to have a lot of expenditures made for it,” Wallace said. “The university has grown tremendously and expanded so the water distribution system was not adequately sized for future growth. It had sections that were 70 plus years old, and we would have had to replace the Tech water tower because it was too small and needed a lot of maintenance. We would have also had to drill more wells because they were reaching capacity.”
Ruston Mayor Dan Hollingsworth said taking on Tech as a customer will be economically beneficial to the city.
“I think it’s just another instance where it’s a benefit for one of us to do this rather than both of us,” Hollingsworth said. “It gives us a brand-new customer and a brand-new system, and it will help us from a revenue standpoint. This is something that probably should have happened 50 years ago. I think we have a new spirit of cooperation.”
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