20171013Application.pdf

PO Box 786, Driggs Idaho 83422
lTs - Lo- r?-o /
20
October 10,2017
To Idaho Public Utilities Commission,
The Teton Water & Sewer Company has been considering the possibility of adding a 3'd well at Teton Springs for quite some
time. With the summer behind us, we have begun discussions with the engineering firm that has assisted us since inception as
well as the geologist ofrecord to discuss necessity, ideas and processes.
There are a number of reasons driving this discussion, including but not limited to:
- The total GPM's currently being produced by the 2 current wells combined and the shortfall from that provided by IDWR
(approximately 340 GPM produced as compared to 500 GPM allotted. Well #1 is producing about 280 GPM and Well #2 about
60 GPM)
- The lack of redundancy created by the water production from well #2 in the event of a failure of well # 1 (a primary reason for
two wells)
The redundancy issue came to light this summer when we had an electrical panel failure of well #1 in August. It occurred in the
early morning hours on a Sunday morning. Fortunately, we had a generator rented and parked on-site (a pro-active move for
the Eclipse period in the event of a power grid failure). An electrician was called and arrived at about 10:00 am, the generator
was "hot-wired" into the pump system and water production resumed shortly before noon. During this roughly l0-hour period,
thereservewaterinthetankwassignificantlydepleted.....thiswhileWell#2waspumping. Hadwenothadbeenluckyenough
to have a generator on-hand, and had the electrician not been available, we would have run out of water for the users before a
generator or electrician could have been obtained at some point on Monday. As a note, we also attempted to contact the pump
control folks that Sunday morning, they were out of town and not available until some point Monday.
As you may know, a 3'd well was always considered during the planning and development of our system. The record drawings
with Idaho DEQ indicate a future location in the event necessity was determined. To be clear, our goal is not to increase our
water rights, the goal is to determine the best method to obtain the water rights we have in a consistent, reliable and efficient
manner.
At this time, we have asked Rendezvous Engineering to begin communication with IDWR to learn more about the process
involved with regard to our water rights and a new well. Rendezvous will also begin preliminary discussions with Andrews
Well Drilling (they drilled all of the original wells and have done the repair work over time) to get their thoughts and
preliminary pricing data. The geologist, Bem Hinckley, has been asked to review the geology data for the area.
Based on these initial discussions, we will move to the next steps including Idaho DEQ, IPUC and whatever other items
required.
We request the Commission to approve recovery of expenses in relation to this project. In addition, we request this to be
processed through modifi ed procedure.
Wr & Sewer Company
(208) 3s4-02s6
P
(208) 201-47e8