Elko County - Town of Jarbidge Water System Improvement Project
BACKGROUND
 Jarbidge is a small, seasonally active community in the Humboldt National Forest in northeastern Nevada. Located on a county road about 80 miles north of Interstate 80 and 20 miles south of the Idaho border, this mountain resort community straddles the Jarbidge River at an elevation of 6,200 feet. Lying in a steep and narrow canyon with steeply rising walls, there is little room for further development on the canyon floor. A dozen permanent residents remain at Jarbidge, which has a store, a gas pump, two bars, a post office and the very welcome (and welcoming) Outdoor Inn.
As early as 10,000 years ago, Indian hunting parties camped in nearby caves to hunt game. Some time after 1150 A.D., Shoshone-speaking people entered the region, camping and hunting here until the beginning of historic time. The name Jarbidge comes from a Shoshone word meaning "a bad or evil spirit."
A gold strike, discovered in this isolated area in 1909 by Dave Bourne, prompted a rush the following spring when reports of the region's spectacular richness appeared in the press. Some 1,500 miners reached the deep canyon to stake claims on the snowdrifts covering the ground as deep as 18 feet, but when the snow melted it exposed the exaggeration of the newspaper reports, and most of the claims melted away with the snow. Further discoveries were made in 1910, however, and by the end of the year, Jarbidge was a long, narrow community of several hundred residents connected by stagecoach with its nearest neighbor, Rogerson, Idaho, some 65 miles away. Production of ores - and the population - varied, and a decline occurred in the late 1920's. However, in the early 1920's the Jarbidge district replaced fading Goldfield as the premier gold-producing area in Nevada. On a cold, stormy December 5, 1916, the last stagecoach robbery and murder in the history of the West took place in Jarbidge Canyon, one-quarter mile north of the town.
The Jarbidge water system was initiated by a citizen's committee in 1915, became privately owned by the Jarbidge Water Users Association, Inc., in 1968 and became publicly owned by the unincorporated Town of Jarbidge in 1996. In a 1993 letter to the Division of Water Planning, Elko County expressed their recognition of the need to improve the Jarbidge water system. Elko County received significant Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to construct improvements to benefit the privately owned Jarbidge water system in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
The Town of Jarbidge is 106 acres in size and is bounded by mine and US Forest Service lands. The un-metered water distribution system serves approximately 20 customers year round and has a total of almost 100 existing connections which potentially could be utilized during peak summer occupancy. Many of these connections serve camp or trailer sites on small individual lots. There has, however, been a moratorium on new water connections for several years.
Jarbidge currently receives its water from a surface water diversion - 1913 water right to divert 0.5 cfs of water and a 1994 water right to divert 0.25 cfs of additional water - on Bear Creek. This diversion has placed Jarbidge on a list of communities required to comply with the Surface Water Treatment Rules. At the time of this project, Jarbidge was the only community in Nevada on the federal list of significant non-complying systems. Due to the location of this community's water source and failing bacteriological tests in this system, Jarbidge was on a continuous boil water order for more than a year. Jarbidge was one of the example communities in need of funding assistance that was identified by the Bureau of Health Protection Services during the deliberations on the establishment of the AB 198 program.
As noted above, the current source of Jarbidge's municipal water is a surface water intake on Bear Creek. The original diversion was located 2,800 feet west of town, and nearly 200 feet above the town. That intake comprised an infiltration gallery buried behind a weir in the creek floor. High levels of iron in the water prompted the town to move the point of diversion upstream several hundred feet to avoid the naturally occurring source of the iron. The amount of water currently diverted by this structure is estimated. Flow from the diversion pond is measured at the weir and can be as high as 40-45 gpm and can sometimes slow to zero gpm in late summer or early fall.
Due to the Surface Water Treatment Rule, Jarbidge sought an alternative source. With the help of a CDBG planning grant, an engineering firm was retained to study and evaluate other potential sources. A test well study conducted by this firm ruled out finding any desirable source of groundwater. All test wells within a reasonable distance of town were disappointing either for lack of volume or for high iron content. Jarbidge also explored relocating their intake on the Jarbidge River, above town. The site contemplated would have provided additional water, minimized pumping costs, and assured that the intake was upstream of the many septic systems in this community. However, the State Engineer's Office indicated that current applications for this new system (i.e., a point of diversion change to the West Fork of the Jarbidge River) were protested by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, reducing expectations for a timely approval.
Jarbidge had an old and inadequate distribution system. The system delivers water along both sides of the river to the various homes and camp sites served by the system. The system was mostly old iron, frequently developed leaks, and due to shallow depths, was subject to repeated freezing. One stretch of pipe, which ran from town westerly up the Bear Creek channel to the storage reservoir, was particularly troublesome. This pipeline had frozen during past winters, isolating the customers from the storage tank. Freeze events have lasted as long as two weeks. During these periods residents would have no water, and lack of pressure in the system would substantially increase the probability of contamination.
Jarbidge investigated several potential solutions to their surface water treatment problem. Solutions evaluated by their engineer included: 1) constructing a slow sand filter on Bear Creek at the location of their current diversion structure; 2) constructing a slow sand filter on the Jarbidge River on an available site at the north end of town; 3) constructing a slow sand filter on a riverside site near the south end of town which may have to be purchased; and 4) drilling at three different well sites which have each required water treatment for iron removal.
While the contemplated well project would have avoided the Surface Water Treatment Rule, each of the three test wells drilled was very high in iron. Iron levels tested as high as 30 mg/L in one well (the standard is 0.3 mg/L). The engineer and geologist agreed that there was little hope of finding a well site which would not encounter the iron rich waters predominant throughout this area. An economic evaluation by the engineer further concluded that the cost of iron removal (filtration) and well operation would be close to the cost of the surface water filtration project.
While Jarbidge initially planned to construct a water treatment plant on Bear Creek, other potential solutions were considered. The Bear Creek site had disadvantages which made other sites appear more desirable. Bear Creek is steep, narrow, and subject to closure during the winter. The best site was very tight for the size of plant which would be required for Jarbidge. The cost of extending power from Jarbidge 2,800 feet up the canyon was also very high. In addition, autumn flows in Bear Creek can decrease to levels which will not adequately serve the number of connections which may be active at the time.
Before selecting the Bear Creek site for the plant, the County evaluated a Jarbidge River site. The location of a treatment plant along the Jarbidge river at a site at the north end of town would have allowed use of a property owned by the County and appeared to provide adequate area for filtration beds. This site's disadvantages included its location low on the river which would require considerable energy for pumping water up into the system, and its location downstream of all the town's septic systems. Another Jarbidge River site was considered at the south end of town. This site was considerably higher in elevation, which minimizes pumping costs, and was upstream of the septic systems. Water rights, however, did not appear to be available at this point on the river and could not be transferred from Bear Creek.
Jarbidge sought approval for a slow sand filtration plant with a maximum capacity of 100 gpm. The project capacity was based on an estimated average of 40 gpm collected at Bear Creek and the need for peaking capacity during high summer use periods. Elko County's engineer estimated they would need about 2.5 times the average flow to meet their peak demands. Jarbidge identified a site on Bear Creek with sufficient area for two, 30-foot diameter filters. This site fit well with the diversion site. The project also included extending a new power service to this site to power a chlorination system. Due to its location above the reservoir and high above town, this treatment plant site eliminated any cost of pumping treated water into the system.
In addition to the construction of the new treatment plant, the system planned to replace 1,700 feet of pipe between town and the storage reservoir and an additional 2,600 feet of pipe within town that paralleled the Jarbidge River. Much of the pipeline which connected the reservoir with town was shallow and subject to freezing or damage by rocks falling from the canyon walls. The pipeline replacement program included reconnection of fire hydrants and about 100 existing services. It also included two shallow river crossings which were threatened with exposure or washout during high flow periods.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In October 1996, the Board for Financing Water Projects (Board) approved a Letter of Intent from Elko County for the Town of Jarbidge. On March 29, 2001, the Board awarded Elko County a grant of $813,473 (85% of a total eligible project cost of $957,027) for the Town of Jarbidge Water System Improvements Project. The scope of the project included a water treatment facility and water line improvements with the estimated total project cost based on an engineering study performed in 1999.
As Elko County prepared to start construction on the water system improvements, it ran into difficulty obtaining the necessary permits from the US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. At the time Elko County was trying to obtain the permits for the Jarbidge Water System, Jarbidge was in the national news regarding the battle with the US Fish and Wildlife Service over the South Fork Road (the 1,000 Shovel March) and the endangered bull trout. All of this attention on Jarbidge made permitting anything in the area much more difficult and took longer than expected. The permitting activities consumed much more money than Elko County had budgeted for permitting.
While the project was being delayed by the permitting process the cost of the project increased due to normal inflation. In 2003, Elko County sent the project out for bid and found that they did not have enough funding left to build the project as designed and as originally funded by their AB 198 grant. Elko County requested an increase in grant funding for the Town of Jarbidge. On December 16, 2003, the Board approved an amended grant for $1,119,895.40 (85% of a total eligible project cost of $1,317,524).
The filtration plant was completed in fall of 2004 and testing was started to meet the requirements for the Surface Water Treatment Rule, as required by the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water. After the original particle count study was performed, the system failed to meet the turbidity and Cryptosporidium removal requirements of the Surface Water Treatment Rule. The filtered water turbidity is required to be less than 1 NTU 95% of the time and never to exceed 5 NTU. After much testing, it was discovered that using a treatment of alum and caustic soda along with static mixing would coagulate the fine particles so that the filter plant could remove them and raise the pH. In addition to the chemical addition, a change in the system flow was implemented. After chemical addition, the raw water was pumped to the existing 30,000-gallon, in-ground, galvanized steel tank up-gradient of the treatment plant to allow the flocculated particles to settle out of solution. In the beginning, the operator added the chemicals manually. With these changes in the process, the filter plant met all of the drinking water requirements.
Elko County requested additional funds to automate the handling the alum and caustic soda in the new filter plant. On August 4, 2005, the Board approved an increase in the grant amount to $1,287,700.70 (85% of the total eligible project cost of $1,514,942). The project scope was expanded to add automated handling of the alum and caustic soda.
PROJECT STATUS
The water treatment facility is installed and operational. The improvements to the distribution system are also complete. HDPE pipe was used for the pipeline replacement as it had less requirements for bedding materials which would have otherwise had to be trucked into Jarbidge from some distance for this project.
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