A Sonoran Truth Guest Editorial by Council Member Charles Spitzer
No town council before this one, including the two Mr. LaMar served on, found it necessary to demand a maintenance plan for our critical infrastructure. Anyone owning a house or car knows routine maintenance is crucial for avoiding major expenses down the road. Well, “Down the road” is here.
A little history: The Rancho Manana wastewater treatment plant was dismantled in 2008 and 2 pumps were installed to send wastewater to the new WWTP [waste water treatment plant] on Carefree Highway. If properly maintained, these pumps have a lifespan of about 30 years with quarterly checkups and yearly bearing replacements. Under previous Town Councils, however, the maintenance plan was “Fix it if it’s broke.” In other words, no maintenance has been done on these pumps for 6.5 years.
At the 2/17/2015 Cave Creek Town Council meeting, it was announced there could be a possible spill of wastewater into the Ranch Manana community. This meeting can be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/58945416.
Because no maintenance was done, a pump burnt out a few weeks ago. The replacement cost of this pump is $23,000 and refurbishment cost is $12,000-16,000 (both costs are minus shipment and installation). The 2nd pump, probably in much the same condition, may fail too.
These pumps move about 200,000 gallons of waste water/day. A single day of spillage will cost $100,000/day in state fines plus cleanup costs. Pump trucks to move this wastewater will cost $20,000/day.
As you can see, annual maintenance would have been far less expensive and kept the system working efficiently.
A few months ago, the current Town Council directed staff to prepare a maintenance plan for the water and waste water infrastructure. Creation of that plan is now in progress. This current critical situation, however, points out the fact that a plan was needed from the start, when the town purchased the water system and built the waste water treatment plant. Amazingly, no other Council prior to the current one felt this was necessary. Surprisingly, this didn’t occur to Mr. LeMar either. Hopefully, he takes better care of his car.
Editor’s comment: This lack of maintenance also reflects badly on the Town’s prior manager, Usama Abujbarah and justifies his termination.