By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

A new carbon dioxide feed system will be built at the Hays water plant.

The current system consists of three aging components, two obsolete feeders and a six-ton 49-year-old storage tank, refurbished in 2005, which has needed six repairs in the last five years.

“A new larger 30-ton tank will reduce the need for frequent deliveries, reduce costs, and reduce the potential to run out of CO2,” Director of Water Resources Jeff Crispin told Hays city commissioners Thursday night.

“Roughly $5,000 every year would be saved just in transportation costs and hazmat fees we pay per load,” he said. Sourcing repair parts has also become difficult.

“The new tank allows us to go from 23 deliveries to 4 per year and allows us to take a full load. When we go out to bid for chemicals, a lot of the companies won’t bid for us because they don’t want to bring us a partial load. They have to stop here, stop in Russell, so it causes us some issues with bidding,” Crispin explained. “A bigger tank will open the door for more companies to bid with us.”

“The cost of CO2 is roughly $200 a ton and we take on about a hundred tons a year,” Crispin reported. Carbon dioxide is used as part of the softening process and PH balance.

City commissioners Thursday night approved the low bid of $312,000 dollars from Smoky Hill, LLC, Salina, for construction of the system. New redundant feeders will also be designed and installed.

The project was budgeted in 2017 for $300,000. Crispin said the Water Capital fund has adequate funding to cover the additional cost of the project. “We should be able to recoup those costs in two years of transportation savings,” Mayor Shaun Musil pointed out.

The Hays water softening plant, 1000 Vine, was built in 1949.