‘Tanks’ for the memories

Standing over communities of all sizes, elevated water tanks are an enduring part of the national landscape, appearing on the horizon as icons of identity and local legend. Since their transformation from wood to steel in the late 19th century, tanks have taken on new shapes and sizes, yet their role as an essential component of water distribution has remained unchanged.

A ‘riveting’ start The history of elevated water tanks can be traced along the tracks of America’s railroad system. “Many of the [manufacturers of elevated water tanks] started out working for the railroad industry,” says David Dues, vice president for Caldwell Tanks in Louisville, Ky. “They would erect the water tanks to furnish water for the steam engines, and municipalities kind of picked up on those and started using them for the city’s water tanks. Tanks also were built by [industrialists] to furnish waterto manufacturing plants and for fire protection.”

(Incidentally, when asking about the evolution of elevated water tanks, one likely will be surprised by the number of times he is referred to “Petticoat Junction,” the television series, as proof of Dues’ observations. Each week, as that visual record of Americana unfolded, town sweethearts Betty Jo, Bobbie Jo and Billie Jo stood half-clothed in the local water tank, welcoming train passengers to the junction. Reliving the memory himself, one tank manufacturer exclaims, “I don’t know what was going on in that town.”) By the early 1880s, wrought iron and steel were replacing wood as the primary components of tank design. “Some of the tanks were steel, sitting on top of masonry towers, and some of them were standpipes,” says Crone Knoy, chief executive officer for Indianapolis-based Tank Industry Consultants. “The earliest steel tank on a steel tower was right around 1890.”

Assembled atop the towers, the tanks were constructed of steel plates that were fastened with rivets (welding had yet to be invented). In some cases, manufacturers sent their own teams to install the tanks, Dues says. In other cases, the communities hired contractors, giving birth to an industry of roving riveters.

“Some of the [contract] workers were union, and some were non-union, but, because of the specialized nature of building elevated tanks, the Boilermakers Union made a special arrangement for contractors to move their people around from one local union to another,” Knoy says. “Most of them had the goal of doing their northern work in the summer and their southern work in the winter.”

Depending on the size of the installation, teams of six to 12 men would construct the tank. “For a small tank (50,000 gallons), the job might take three to four weeks, and some of the large tanks (2 million gallons or above) might take six months,” Knoy muses. “One of the biggest things that required teamwork was the rigging, actually placing the steel components so the job was done safely.”

Taking on a new look Itinerant contractors remained a staple of the tank industry, even when, in the 1930s, welding began to revolutionize the way tanks were manufactured and installed. “Welding had been developed to the point that it could be used to assemble the tanks in the field,” Knoy says. “So, from the 1930s through the early 1950s, there was a transition from riveted tanks to welded tanks as each company developed its own expertise and pools of skilled workers.”

Until then, steel water tanks had typically looked like fireworks rockets: cylinders with cone-shaped tops and curved bottoms, sitting atop “fuses” of latticed supports. However, that soon would change.

By the latter part of the decade, welding had made it possible to introduce tubular support columns, which were more cost-effective to manufacture and easier to paint and maintain than were lattices. Additionally, it prompted manufacturers to begin experimenting with tank shapes and capacities.

“[Manufacturers] started making tanks a little bit bigger and spreading them out,” Knoy explains. “They’d be larger in diameter, so they went to ellipsoidal bottoms. Then, for even larger capacities, they used radial cone bottoms. That allowed them to build tanks with 1 million to 1 1/2 million gallons capacity, still with a reasonable head range.” Union involvement changed along with tank designs, Knoy says. “In some areas, the Iron Workers Union would claim construction of the tower, and the Boilermakers Union would have to build the steel plate tank on top of that tower,” he explains. “With tubular columns, the tower became Boilermaker work also.”

Since that initial flurry of activity surrounding the welding breakthrough, steel tank designs have changed only sporadically. In 1940, the single-pedestal spheroid (or pedisphere) was introduced, although, according to Knoy, there is some question as to whether it was first built by Chicago Bridge and Iron, Chicago, or by R.D. Cole (now Brown Steel Contractors), based in Newnan, Ga.

Since then, changes have included the introduction of torus bottoms for multiple-column tanks. And, in the 1950s, Pittsburgh-based Pitt-Des Moines introduced the hydropillar (also known as the “fluted tank”), a single-pedestal tank surrounded by a folded-plate tower.

Beyond form While water tank design is based upon factors such as capacity, hydraulics, cost-effectiveness and efficiency, it falls to the communities in which the tanks stand to take care of aesthetics. Even the first tanks were decorated or disguised to promote a unique identity for their owners.

“In the 1800s and early 1900s, communities would frequently put fancy handrails or catwalks on the tanks,” Knoy says. In 1908, the local water company in Gary, Ind., constructed an elevated water tank and enclosed it with mortar, giving it the appearance of a castle turret. (The enclosed tank has endured 90 years of use, making it the oldest usable tank in the state.)

Today, water tank decoration often is limited to a stenciled community name, painted on the tank to create a “You are here” reference for residents and visitors alike. However, some communities have followed a more imaginative tradition that began more than a half-century ago.

In the 1920s, industrialists discovered that the elevated tanks used at their plants could be transformed into elaborate billboards for their companies. Honolulu-based Dole provided one of the most ornamental examples of such tanks when, in 1927, it built a multiple-column tank in the shape of an enormous pineapple. Similarly, in the 1930s, Louisville-based Old Forester distillery hoisted its water tank in the shape of a giant bourbon bottle. Modern communities have taken the fun to heart. For example, a 500,000 gallon spheroid, painted to resemble a hot air balloon, greets motorists on I-81 and I-77 outside Wytheville, Va.

Last year, when the community’s existing water tank was taken out of service for maintenance, the Wytheville-Wythe-Blande Chamber of Commerce raised $30,000 to transform the tank into a unique landmark. With funds gathered from more than 100 residents and businesses, the chamber commissioned a paint design to promote the community’s status as the host of the annual Chautauqua Festival, which features hot air balloons.

In South Carolina, motorists traveling along I-85 will find a similar monument to community pride. There, a steel peach symbolizes the town’s one-time claim to fame as home to one of the largest peach-producing farms in the state.

“In 1975, our long-range plans showed that we needed some elevated storage in the I-85 area of our system,” says Donnie Hardin, general manager for the Board of Public Works in Gaffney. “We needed to build a tank, and, in an evening meeting, the board chairman said, ‘We ought to look at building it as a peach.'”

The idea was floated at board meetings and met with public approval, and, with a $969,000 grant secured for the project, the design phase ensued. “They came up with the color scheme and the design by actually going into the fields and picking peaches,” Hardin explains. “They found what they thought was the perfect peach and modeled it after that.”

With 357 tons of steel, the 1 million gallon Peachoid (named after its spheroid shape) was completed in 1981. It sits atop a 61-foot pedestal, anchored in 937 cubic yards of concrete that is reinforced with nearly 33,000 pounds of steel. The peach itself is 135 feet tall, with a diameter of 73 feet.

Rather than paint a stem, cleft and leaf on the peach, the board opted to have those features cast in steel and welded to the tank. “The leaf is 60 feet long, 16 feet at its widest point, and it weighs 13,700 pounds,” Hardin says with a chuckle. The 12-foot stem is made of hollow steel, capped at the end.

Requiring 50 gallons of paint and more than 25 colors to perfect, the Peachoid now stands as a calling card for the South Carolina Peach Festival, held annually in Gaffney. “Reaction has been very good,” Hardin says. “We get our usual jokes from people saying it looks like something other than a peach (motorists viewing the cleft have been known to say that the peach resembles a derriere), but the peach basically has become a landmark.

“It put us on the map,” he continues. “People very seldom have heard of Gaffney; it’s a small town, and folks may not know where it is. But they’ll know where the Peachoid is because it sits right on I-85, which is probably one of the busiest interstates in the nation.”

Location and need Regardless of the type of tanks available or the way in which they are decorated, elevated water tanks function pretty similarly, Dues says. However, cities and counties may choose their water tanks based on a variety of factors, starting with capacity.

After that, “the choice is going to depend on the tank site,” Dues says. “If you were putting it in a rural area, out in a corn field, you may be looking for a multi-column tank, which is purely functional and does the job economically. If you were in the city limits, maybe close to a subdivision, you might want something a little more modern that would blend into the community more.”

Maintenance and liability may be determining factors as well, he says. “The pedestal spheroid is easy to maintain because it’s all smooth surfaces; and it has no exterior ladders, so, as far as liability, it becomes a very secure structure. You don’t have kids climbing up to paint the latest baseball scores on it.”

With the fluted tank, the enclosure provides space between the foundation and the tank for storage. In fact, a few communities have converted the extra space to fire or emergency response stations. “Sometimes it’s beneficial to do that in order to get the zoning for the tank,” Knoy says. “But it’s kind of a toss-up as far as the economics of it. Of course it saves land, and maybe people who wouldn’t accept a water tank in the area would accept it if it contained a fire station or police station.”

Ensuring long life Once the tank type is chosen, maintenance is the key to preserving the investment, Dues says. “There are more than three dozen steel water tanks around the country that are over 100 years old, and they have been in service all that time,” he notes. “They have lasted because the owners were concerned for and maintained them.” Even the earliest tanks were built to be drained, he notes, but their fate lay in the hands of the communities that owned them. “That’s still the case today,” Dues says. “There are tanks built 30 years ago, and nobody’s been in them for 30 years. They just don’t maintain them.”

Although tank design has not changed dramatically in the last few decades, maintenance has been made easier by another significant change. In the past, tank steel was protected with wax, lead paint and, in some cases, hot-applied tar, Dues says. Epoxy coating, introduced in the last 20 years, has provided a durable alternative to its unhealthy predecessors.

“On at least 75 percent of the tanks built today, the interior is coated with a high-build, two-component epoxy paint, using either two or three coats,” Dues explains. “The outside will get a [similar] primer, an intermediate coat and a polyurethane finish.” Because epoxy paints are a fairly new component to tank maintenance, many cities and counties still are in the process of retrofitting, he notes. “A lot of those tanks built in the 1950s and 1960s need a complete recoating, so many municipalities are going through a very expensive maintenance cycle on their older tanks to get rid of the lead paint.”

When they are finished, those cities and counties will have preserved a piece of their local and national heritage. They are likely to have citizens who claim illicit swims in the local water tank or secret fits of delinquency in which they pronounced their love by painting their sweethearts’ names on steel. True or not, the stories will be told and heard with a sense of nostalgia, tying the tellers, like the tanks, to the annals of community.

This month, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and the San Diego County Water Authority expect to finalize a 30-year water exchange agreement. The deal, the largest farm-to-city water transfer in the state’s history, includes the annual transfer of up to 200,000 acre-feet of agricultural water from the Imperial Valley to Southern California’s urbanized coastal plain.

The agreement comes at a time when California is launching a variety of water conservation projects. Other plans include building groundwater storage facilities along the Colorado River and lining the All American Canal and its Coachella branch. (The canals deliver water from the Colorado River to the Imperial and Coachella valleys.)

The state is responding to the federal government and six basin states, all of which are demanding that California reduce its reliance on the Colorado River. Furthermore, it is attempting to resolve long-standing arguments among a variety of parties (including Los Angeles-based MWD, agricultural interests in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, and the San Luis Rey Indians) over how much of the river’s water is being used by whom.

The storage facilities and canal lining could accomplish both of those goals, according to MWD. Groundwater storage could yield up to 300,000 acre-feet of water for use during dry years, while concrete canal lining would save 97,000 acre-feet of water annually, to be divided equally among stakeholders.

With the transfer program, MWD and the San Diego County Water Authority also would reduce their reliance on Colorado River water. Under the agreement, the authority would acquire conserved water from the Imperial Valley Irrigation District and transfer it to MWD. In turn, MWD would transport the water to its own supply and provide a like amount of water to the authority.

For the first 20 years, the authority would pay $90 per acre-foot to MWD, increasing its payment 1.55 percent annually after 1998. (For example, if the transfer begins in 2004, as planned, the price per acre-foot in that year would be $98.70.) After 20 years, the price per acre-foot would drop to $80 and then increase 1.44 percent annually for 10 years. According to MWD, the authority would take 10 years after the initial transfer to reach the maximum annual purchase of 200,000 acre-feet. The minimum annual purchase would be 100,000 acre-feet.

Although the transfer could have a significant impact on local and regional water supply and delivery, its effects may be more far-reaching, says MWD Chairman John Foley. “This agreement offers San Diego its long-sought assurance of continued water supplies,” he notes. “More importantly, it could assure Southern California a reliable source of drinking water for up to 30 years by keeping our aqueduct full. In turn, that could greatly reduce the need for increased supplies from Northern California and could provide greater protection for the natural resources of the San Francisco Bay-San Joaquin Delta.”

In Williams Bay, Wis., ammonia nitrate in the village’s water source has prompted the construction of a new well house at Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy. As part of the project, a water main will be extended through a wetlands area, presenting environmental and engineering challenges.

In 1993, Williams Bay detected a nitrite level of 3.9 milligrams per liter in its water distribution system (EPA requires the nitrite level to be less than 1 milligram per liter in public water systems). To pinpoint the source of the problem, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) took water samples and discovered that two of the village’s shallow wells had high levels of nitrogen ammonia (or nitrate, a precursor to nitrite).

Officials added water to the existing wells to reduce the nitrate levels. They also decided to drill a deeper well in which nitrate levels (caused by nonpoint source contamination) would be reduced significantly.

A geophysical study showed that the most suitable site for the new well was within Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy, and the water main that would connect the well to an existing treatment plant would have to traverse wetlands. Because of the site’s protected status, DNR would scrutinize the plans.

To fund the entire project, Williams Bay obtained $885,000 through a federal Safe Drinking Water Act loan. Although approval for the well house and water main is pending, construction got under way last summer, when Pewaukee, Wis.-based Layne-Northwest drilled the well.

During well construction, a silt fence was installed around the site to control erosion, and drilling fluid was captured in a container to prevent seepage into the ground. As work progresses on the well house and water main, topsoil will be preserved and replaced. In addition to minimizing the environmental threat to Kishwauketoe, Williams Bay faced design difficulties as it sought to extend a water main through wetlands. “A wetland area would offer little physical support for a water main,” says Kelly Zylstra, project engineer for Elkhorn, Wis.-based Crispell-Snyder, which is overseeing the project’s design and construction.

“Soil borings were done to determine if peat or other organics were present along the proposed water main route,” Zylstra explains, adding that high-density polyethylene pipe will be required in areas where peat was identified. “That type of pipe is lighter than PVC or ductile iron and will float, eliminating the problem of lack of support that occurs in highly organic soils.” She notes that a special water main trench will be used as bedding for the pipe, and geofabric will be used to separate bedding stones from the peat.

The Kishwauketou well house and water main are scheduled for construction soon after DNR approval is granted (project completion is expected this month). By 1999, the site is expected to produce up to 800 gallons of water per minute for delivery to Williams Bay.

A pilot program northwest of Wichita, Kan., could lead to a full-scale replenishment of groundwater supplies that would help provide safe water for Wichita for years to come. The three-year program is assessing the feasibility of using water from the Little Arkansas River to recharge the Equus Beds aquifer, a major groundwater resource that has been used by the city for more than 50 years.

Groundwater pumping by irrigators, industries and cities has lowered water levels in the aquifer by 20 to 50 feet over the last 40 years, causing a 322,000 acre-foot water deficit. “If we keep using up the water at this rate without recharging the aquifer, there just won’t be enough water to go around in the Wichita area,” says David Warren, director of the city’s Water and Sewer Department.

In a small-scale test project, the city is pumping river water to a recharge trench or to recharge basins, where the water infiltrates the soil. In another experiment, the water is pumped directly back into the aquifer through a recharge well. In all cases, the water is treated prior to reaching the recharge site.

The $7 million test phase, scheduled to end this year, will determine the feasibility of implementing a full-scale groundwater recharge storage and recovery operation. Data gathered in that phase will be used by the city to develop design criteria for the full-scale project, and by state and federal agencies for approval and permitting. The larger project could cost more than $100 million, according to Kansas City, Mo.-based Burns & McDonnell, engineer and construction manager for the pilot.

The Equus Beds project is only one part of Wichita’s proposed Integrated Water Supply Plan, which is intended to serve water demands through 2050. Other components include: * conserving water; * using surface water from Cheney Reservoir; * expanding groundwater supply from the local well field; * restarting a reserve well field for blending high-salt groundwater during peak periods; and * using remediated groundwater.

In three years, Wichita’s actions have saved 5.5 billion gallons of water. “The city is trying to meet its needs from locally available water supplies,” says David Pope, chief engineer for the Kansas Division of Water Resources. “Conservation is an important part of the plan.”