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January 21, 2008

County to buy water from Arley

By Brittany Woodby

The City of Cullman has agreed to allow the Cullman County Water System to purchase water from other systems.

Cullman Mayor Donald Green sent a letter to the Cullman County Commission on Friday approving the request.

“Anything they can do to help get extra water allows us to stretch out the number of days of water we have left,” he said.

Green said the request does not violate the county’s contract to purchase water from the city, which only specifies a maximum amount the county is allowed to buy.

Cullman County Commission Chairman Wiley Kitchens said the county will soon begin purchasing water from the Arley water system.

“I don’t know how long it will take, but we don’t think it will take that long to go ahead and bring water into the western part of the county,” he said.

Kitchens said infrastructure is in place to pipe finished water from the Arley system to Cullman County water customers.

“The way I understand it, the lines are there and we just have to turn the valves,” he said. “The water will come through Cullman County lines.”

The county is also looking to purchase water from Blount County and northeastern Morgan County to service areas outside the reach of the Arley pipelines.

“If we try to get water from there we have to put a pump station in to bring it up Brewer Mountain,” he said. “That will entail quite a bit of work.”

Kitchens said Cullman County Water Superintendent David Bussman has been working to secure water from other systems and told commissioners the county could purchase anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 gallons of water a day from Arley. However, the cost will be greater than what the county currently pays for water from the City of Cullman.

“It will cost more than what we’re paying with the city, but we’re in a situation now where we’re doing all we possibly can do and we will continue to do what we have to do as far as absorbing the cost,” he said.

The additional water will not impact the Phase III drought emergency conservation plan in place for city and county customers.

“What this will do is help relieve the pressure from our system,” he said. “This will help keep us from using as much water as we normally would be using. That in itself is conservation — conserving what we buy from the city and conserving our water here in our own facility.”

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