BLAINE, Minn. – (April 27, 2017) – Following two water system failures earlier this year, Barr Engineering has completed a review of the entire Blaine water system and has recommended several changes to current operations. Many of the immediate improvements have already been put into place.
“We’ve already taken the interim steps or the immediate steps that needed to be done,” said Blaine’s Public Services Manager, Bob Therres. “We now have the time to go back and do a thorough research of the system.”
The report pointed out that as technology changed, the water system in Blaine did not keep up. The city currently uses three different communication networks to monitor the system. The different networks do not work well together. The report says the city needs to utilize a reliable primary communication network to all areas of the city.
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Even though no one wanted the system failures to occur, city staff believe that going forward the city will have a much better water service because of the troubles.
“The ability for us to step back and put in the amount of time and energy into looking at this that we will have a much better system in the long run,” said Therres.
The city council has taken the step of approving the hiring of a full time public works director to give more oversight to the department. And staff are busy preparing recommendations to put more of the changes suggested in the report into action.
“Having a safe, reliable system is important, and we need to take the steps to make sure that happens,” said Therres.