The crown of Minden's efforts to protect its water resources and provide water to Carson Valley and beyond is being built on an East Valley hill.
On Thursday, Minden officials toured the site of a 2.5 million gallon water tank that will allow the town to fulfill its obligations to provide water to Douglas County, Indian Hills and Carson City.
Town Board Chairman Bob Hadfield had two facts to sum up the tank, which is being built by the Natgun Corp. of Irvine, Calif.
The first was that the majority of the tank's construction cost is being returned to the local economy in the form of materials and labor.
"We're not only investing in infrastructure using the best technology and the best equipment," he said, "but more than 60 percent of Minden's investment is being returned to the Valley in either purchase of supplies or materials. Just the tank's base used 40 loads of concrete from Bing Materials. They are using local equipment, and half of the crew is local labor."
The other is that the concrete tank is designed to survive a century with a fraction of the maintenance required by a steel tank.
"The concrete tank should return its cost in less maintenance over the years," he said. "Steel tanks do rust, and they need to be drained and sandblasted regularly. We've used the most modern technology available."
The tank is designed to withstand a magnitude 6 or 7 earthquake. The tank is expected to cost about $2.07 million of the $10 million total project cost.
"We took the worst case scenario with the closest fault line in the design," he said. "The tank represents the latest, best, technology. It will pay for itself over and over."
Up until now, the town has been able to serve its customers without a water tank.
"The tank is a key component to provide water that meets quality standards to the residents of Carson Valley," Hadfield said. "The tank will let us manage the water system by helping to fill the tanks in East Valley in the evening time, so they have peak demand water in their system in the morning, and allows us to maintain the pressures we need to."
The tank on a hill at the end of Amber Way is the most apparent part of Minden's $10 million investment into infrastructure to support a regional water system.
"It's the most visible part of the investment to make sure we have storage, pumping and distribution capacity to do what we said we would do," Hadfield said.
While customers in the East Valley, Indian Hills and Carson City will benefit from water that meets federal standards, serving a regional water system will help Minden protect its water rights.
Gathered over the years in a variety of ways, the town has long been seeking a way to make sure its water rights were being put to beneficial use.
"We've been working with the state water engineer the whole time I've been on the board to make sure the water rights that the town is fortunate to have in excess of its needs will be protected from someone else who wants to make the town own up to beneficial use," Hadfield said.
"This is the cheapest most beneficial way to address the water concerns in the East Valley, and the north part of the county, as well as Indian Hills," he said.
Hadfield said the 30-inch pipeline between the tank and the pump station will serve fire hydrants along Buckeye. He said it won't be practical for residents to connect to the line, but that there may one day be a parallel service line if there's a need for it.
"I'm very proud of the current and past boards, and all the others who thought about this issue in a broader way," he said. "It really protects the water for Carson Valley. We're very proud of what we've achieved in partnership with the county. The state has been very supportive, especially the Department of Environmental Protection. We've been making sure that we're able to do what everyone understood needed to be done, but few people had the vision to accomplish."
