WESTFIELD – The City Council voted Thursday night to approve a $3.75 million bond to make repairs to the Granville Reservoir spillway which was washed out during Tropical Storm Irene and to make repairs to the earthen dam, built in 1929, which created the reservoir, the city’s primary source of surface water.
The Finance Committee recommended approval of the bond order. Committee member, At-large Councilor, David A. Flaherty said the repairs are a “public safety and health issue” while urging the council members to approve the funding. The council members unanimously approved the first reading of the bond order and moved it to a second reading, and final passage, at the June 20 City Council session.
Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips had appeared before the Finance Committee on May 30 to explain the need for the spillway and dam repairs.
Irene dumped so much rain in such a short period that it caused the reservoir to overflow into the dam spillway, filling that concrete structure to capacity and eventually washing away soil behind the concrete that supported the spillway wall, which collapsed.
The overflow torrent then washed away a hillside and nearly exposed the raw-water transmission line, which carries reservoir water to the city’s primary treatment plan in Southwick. If that line had been damaged, the city would have lost half of its water supply.
Billips said that reservoir has been taken off line while the raw-water line is being upgraded and enlarged. The fact that the reservoir is already off line for that water main improvement project provides an opportunity to simultaneously replace the spillway and to make other upgrades to the earthen dam of the reservoir built in 1929.
Billips said that the city will receive an $800,000 reimbursement for the Irene-related spillway damage from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) after the spillway replacement work is complete.
The bid opening for the contract will be conducted by the City Purchasing Department on Tuesday, June 13, 2013.
