Wheatland Water Tower: funding, politics, and the bottom line

WHEATLAND —  The emergency project to replace a critically damaged water tank in Wheatland is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It is scheduled for demolition in mid-August.

The million-gallon water storage tank in the Black Mountain subdivision services the western half of Wheatland.

The town had completed an engineering study that was approved in September 2023, setting a plan in place to tear down and replace the water supply tank that had reached a “very high priority” status resulting from unstoppable leaking issues over its 23-year history.

In October 2023, the town also received an administrative notice from the EPA about the tank, citing a “significant deficiency.”

Extreme sub-zero temperatures in the dead of winter further damaged the tank, quickly moving its status to critical and an emergency situation. It was estimated five million gallons a year was leaking from bolted connections that were failing, and the space for water to come through increased dramatically after the freeze-thaw cycles of winter.

To decrease stress on weak points, the Wheatland water department lowered the quantity of water in the tank as far as possible to still maintain ballast and a minimum water pressure to continue to provide water to residents and businesses, even though the lower operating pressure violates EPA minimum pressure requirements.

The path to funding

Highlighting the seriousness of the situation in seeking emergency funding, Wheatland Mayor Brandon Graves, Clerk-Treasurer Candy Wright and Rep. Jeremey Haroldson, R-Wheatland, petitioned the State Loan and Investment Board, made up of the top five elected officials in the state.

Local officials were given only as much funding as necessary to update the well system and tear down the troublesome tower.

Wright was tasked with piles of paperwork required to apply for grant funding from several different sources. Haroldson sought funding through the Wyoming Legislature’s omnibus bill, which passed first and second readings, but failed in its third house reading.

The senate version (SF0075) passed, providing a portion of the funds requested.

Haroldson further applied for and received American Rescue Plan Act funds, but in the last-minute scramble to change the budget bill and pass the governor’s state budget requests, lawmakers moved the ARPA legislation (which had approved Wheatland Water Tower in its language) into the budget bill.

Though the budget bill passed, Haroldson did not vote in favor of it, citing moral reasons. He explained there were other things added last-minute to the budget that he couldn’t stomach voting for, so even though he has received criticism, he stands by his vote.

Hinting at Haroldson’s nay vote on the budget, Gov. Mark Gordon used his line-item veto power in March to strike a portion of the bill which funded the rebuild of the critically damaged Wheatland water tower.

The governor said the emergency SLIB funds were “insufficient” and would provide “something of a bridge for the town.” He added that the section 341 American Rescue Plan Act re-appropriation “should technically be vetoed as it does not pertain to ordinary expenses of the state government; this has been a very strange year where often the regular order of sessions have been overlooked….and this is another example of the legislature not passing the stand alone legislation and responding by adding a section to the budget.”

Gordon further said the town was successful in obtaining mineral royalty grant funding, and he was content to leave things in the hands of the town to find funding from “regular grants” rather than using federal American Rescue Plan monies to complete the necessary rebuild of the tower.

He added that he was “following the lead of local legislators who voted against the budget, thereby indicating their regard for the inclusion of this project in the budget.”

Haroldson explained much of the confusion that has occurred regarding funding for the Wheatland water tower project can be attributed to the fact that more than 800 “pots” or sources of funding that interact with one another to fund all projects were approved by the governing agencies across the state.

Those funding sources are difficult to track and can sometimes be used by multiple state agencies, and even the most seasoned financial experts in the legislature find it difficult to have a complete understanding of how these “pots” interact with each other.

Gordon has said the town’s need would be taken care of with funding in one form or another.

A change of funding sources was reflected during last week’s Wheatland council meeting when the council voted to approve an amendment to the project agreement for the Wheatland tank replacement.

This amendment is to “replace Wyoming Water Development Commission (WWDC) funds with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.”

Wright explained the only change to the project agreement is “just a different pot of funds…WWDC [provided] funds for the water tower. Since that time, it was switched; there is the same dollar amount, the same rules, same administrator (WWDC), etc.”

“The only change is where the money is coming from,” town attorney Doug Weaver added, to explain the amended agreement to the Wheatland council.

The bottom line

According to official records, the estimated total project costs are estimated to be about $8.6 million. In February 2023, $623,000 was provided by the American Rescue Plan Act for engineering and design of a new tower; in November 2023, $1.75 million was made available to the town for infrastructure from the “sixth penny” special purpose excise tax, as approved by a majority of voters in the general election; in January of this year. The SLIB approved emergency funds from the state’s Mineral Royalty Grant for $1.6 million (for well improvements and tank demolition); in February, the Wyoming Water Development Commission approved just over $2.6 million  (through the Omnibus Bill, to contribute 43 percent of the original grant request submitted to the WWDC and Select Water Committee for the tank replacement project); and in June the SLIB again funded the project with an additional Mineral Royalty Grant commitment of $1 million to go toward replacing the tower.

The balance of the project was funded by ARPA monies through the governor’s office for the remaining $800,000.

Last week, the Wheatland council voted to approve a bid by Anderson Construction of Wheatland to dismantle the tank, following tests at the end of July on the new pressure valve system and pumps recently installed on the town’s wells.

The residents will have a form of on-demand water service in lieu of the storage tank while the existing tower is brought down, the ground stabilized and a new 400,000-gallon welded steel tank is constructed under the direction of Civil Engineering Professionals, Inc. (CEPI) of Casper.

Civil engineer Ray Catallier of CEPI said residents shouldn’t notice anything unusual in the transition, other than possibly increased water pressure.

Graves has described the issues the town has experienced with the water tower as “a nightmare from the word ‘go.’”

He and Wright echoed the sentiments of many when they said they would be relieved not only when the water tank is brought down, but once the entire project is finished, sometime in the fall of 2025.

“It’ll be nice to move on,” Wright said.

This story was published on July 17, 2024.