The Grantsville City Council unanimously approved a contract to complete the replacement of the city’s failing North Well during its meeting Wednesday night.
The council selected the low bid, submitted by Hydro Resources, of Fort Lupton, Colorado. Hydro Resources submitted a total bid of $549,462, including $12,569 for a zone test of water quality. The city also received a bid from Grimshaw Drilling, of Cedar City, which totaled $596,574.
Hydro Resources was also selected as the contractor to complete an exploratory well near the North Well site. The city council approved a $51,392 change order on the $120,765 project in June, as the existing borehole of the test well was unstable.
Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall said Hydro Resources was using a rotary drill on the exploratory well but the soils didn’t hold together. A cable rig was brought in to aid in completion of the test well.
“The issue that we had with the exploratory well was nothing that they did wrong,” Marshall said. “They did everything to try and make it go. You had some ground that would collapse into the hole.”
Aqua Engineering, which provides the city’s engineering services, estimated the project would cost about $657,140.
Marshall said Hydro Resources are finishing a project in Bountiful first, then will come to Grantsville to complete the well.
The council’s affirmative vote was made on a motion by Councilman Tom Tripp, who addressed misinformation about the activity near the city’s North Well site.
“There’s been a lot of rumors floating around that this well is being drilled for a new development out in that part of town,” Tripp said. “I just got to clarify this is a well casing that’s failing or failed and needs to be replaced.”
Marshall said the North Well, which was originally drilled in the 1950s, has big holes in its casing that prompted the need for replacement.
The existing North Well was designed to divert approximately 700 gallons per minute, but with a declining static water level and the deteriorating well casing, the actual flow is about 285 gallons per minute, according to Aqua Engineering.