Major public works project set to begin on north side
posted
A new life for Well 7
For 75 years it has stood on North Sherman Avenue, shaded by a maple tree, quietly pumping millions of gallons of water to homes and businesses across Madison's north side. But the facility, known simply as Well 7, doesn't get a lot of second looks – or even first looks.
"The most surprising feedback that we got is that people said they drove by the facility for 30 or 40 years and never knew that it was there," says Al Larson, principal engineer with Madison Water Utility.
Larson has been reaching out to neighbors to gather input on the water utility's planned $5.3 million reconstruction of Well 7, set to start in late spring. He says Madison's second-oldest operating well – built as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1939 – has served the public well over the decades. But it's starting to show its age.
"It's falling apart."
.
When you step inside Well 7, signs of deterioration are hard to miss – rust and water stains, vintage 1930s-era equipment, cloudy dials and displays. But according to Larson, it's not just the age that has become a big problem, it's the size.
"It's very small. It doesn't have enough space to adequately store chemicals, so you have chlorine and fluoride (tanks) and electrical gear all basically sharing the same space."
The new Well 7 will not only have a chemical room, it will have a much larger attached reservoir designed to hold a half-million gallons of water. The aging booster pump will be replaced with two new ones, each capable of pumping more than 2,000 gallons of water every minute out of the reservoir and into the distribution system. Larson says the improvements are driven by one priority: fire protection.
"In a major fire, we'll run both pumps, so pumping 3,500 to 4,000 gallons a minute. We've sized the reservoir for a commercial-rated fire, so if we lost the well altogether, we'd still have half a million gallons of water available to fight fires and provide additional water supply to the surrounding areas."
Iron and manganese
Larson admits that when construction is finished next summer, most people on the northeast side won't notice the bigger reservoir or the newer, more energy efficient pumps. But they will notice a difference in how their water looks, maybe even in how it tastes. Because for its entire seven-and-a-half decades, Well 7 has been pumping naturally-occurring iron and manganese – particularly iron – into the distribution system.
"We have to flush (water mains in the area) a lot. We get complaints from time to time -- staining laundry, and a lot of staining of fixtures and toilets and that kind of thing. Sooner or later, if we didn't do anything, we'd probably have to abandon the well."
So Madison Water Utility is adding an iron and manganese filtration system at Well 7, and the improvement will likely have a big impact. People living along North Sherman Ave., west of Packers Ave., and as far south as the Yahara River all get their water from the well. It also serves the entire Village of Maple Bluff.
"Once we filter it, it's going to be an excellent source of water."
Disappearing again
There's no question Well 7 will be bigger after construction. Much bigger. And Larson says Madison Water Utility has gotten a clear directive from neighbors.
"They said, 'We want the new facility to disappear exactly like the first one did.' They wanted the architecture to fit into the neighborhood, to be subdued. We had a lot of feedback on what the building would look like ... It's got a lot of different angles to it to try to break it up and make it appear smaller. It's not going to be a big concrete box."
The community also offered a lot of input on landscaping as architects worked to blend the building into the neighborhood. And they made sure the maple tree would remain standing, shading the new Well 7 for another generation.
"We always think of the (our) wells lasting 60, 70, 80 years. Maybe a hundred years. There's no reason that Well 7 won't last another hundred years."
Subscribe to Water Utility News & Alerts Updates
Archive
Category
Uncategorized
- A funny song about a serious thing
- Reminder: The Great Showerhead Giveaway happening this Saturday!
- Flushing program puts Madison "on the forefront"
- Paying for Progress
- The long road to smart meters
- Going in the hole: Madison Water Utility crews take on main break season
- Madison getting its first new water well in a decade
- Rebuilding pride in Paterson
- Lake View Reservoir reconstruction sparks neighborhood interest
- Madison Water Utility builds new water mains -- inside the old ones
- Well hunters: Finding Madison's long-hidden private wells
History
- What’s under Monroe Street?
- Finding Madison's foxes
- Bidding farewell to Madison’s “legacy” main
- Madison Water Utility turns 135!
- World War II-era journals discovered at construction site
- EPA seeks details of Madison’s Lead Service Replacement Program
- Rediscovering the reservoir
- Unearthing Madison's history
Our People
- Worst-case: What happens when a water main breaks under an airport taxiway?
- Imagine a Day Without Water
- High school students get hands-on training at MWU
- Worst winter ever? Lessons learned from the "polar vortex" winter of 2013-14
- Imagine a day without water
- MWU releases Annual Water Quality Report
- EPA seeks details of Madison’s Lead Service Replacement Program
- Madison women make history -- with a little help from their friends
- Sometimes, it's what you don't see
- MWU honored for winning Best-Tasting Water in the state!
- Wisconsin's first ever women's tapping team created at MWU
Serving the Community
- “Got Water?” project announces 2020 hydration station schools!
- Final segment of decade-long water main project underway
- Toilet Rebate Program hits 1 billion gallons of water saved!
- Worst-case: What happens when a water main breaks under an airport taxiway?
- Wild February weather takes toll on water mains
- “Got Water?” initiative reaches more than 11,000 students
- Imagine a Day Without Water
- Madison Water Utility adds first new well in more than a decade
- High school students get hands-on training at MWU
- Two Madison Water Utility projects getting national attention
- Imagine a Day Without Water
- What does your water dollar pay for?
- Partnership with Project Home making an impact
- What does your water dollar pay for?
- You can now register to vote at Madison Water Utility!
- Planned Blackhawk Water Tower signals growth on the far west side
- MWU invests millions in water infrastructure on northeast side
- Frozen on the inside: Indoor flooding season is here
- Madison Water Utility first in state to launch "ultimate conservation tool"
- The Water Wagon: A cool lesson in sustainability
- New downtown community garden takes root in unlikely spot
- East Johnson Street: No Ordinary Construction Zone
- Major public works project set to begin on north side
- When there's a fire: MWU's critical mission
- Wisconsin Water for the World: Making a difference one village at a time
- Blindsided: When drivers don't see work zones
- The winter that won't be forgotten
- Frozen on the inside: Indoor flooding season is here
- Bad Medicine
Sustainability
- Madison Water Utility reports unprecedented drop in city’s water use
- Final segment of decade-long water main project underway
- EVERY DROP MADISON poll closes soon!
- Average aquifer levels highest in a generation
- Toilet Rebate Program hits 1 billion gallons of water saved!
- Lost Lou and Peter Barryman tune about conservation gets new life.
- Flushing program puts Madison "on the forefront"
- Wild February weather takes toll on water mains
- Annual water use in Madison drops by a billion gallons in six years
- Madison Water Utility adds first new well in more than a decade
- A funny song about a serious thing
- Water use in Madison drops to lowest level in 50 years
- Catching catastrophic plumbing problems -- through email
- 100 miles of main
- Saving Madison from salt
- You have a voice! MWU seeks public input on critical water issues
- How low can we go?
- Why all the main breaks?
- Madison woman gets serious about water conservation, wins an iPad
- MWU customers catch plumbing leaks – online
- All eyes on the aquifer: Is Madison's water supply sustainable?
- Our graywater experiment: 10 years and counting
- Madison Water Utility first in state to launch "ultimate conservation tool"
- When winter's over: the lasting impact of road salt
- Why all the main breaks?
- Bad Medicine
- Our graywater experiment: 8 years and counting
Water quality
- "We'll be doing this forever." Understanding the impact of PFAS
- EVERY DROP MADISON poll closes soon!
- Imagine a Day Without Water
- Widely used chemicals detected in two Madison wells
- Saving Madison from salt
- Into the bore hole: Tackling the road salt problem at a west side well
- Saving Madison from salt
- Madisonians cite safety and conservation as top water issues
- Why add chlorine? The story behind water disinfection
- Water main flushing puts Madison "on the forefront"
- EPA looks to Madison as leader on lead pipe issue
- Saving Madison from salt
- No easy answers for Well 8
- As Safe Drinking Water Act turns 40, Madison ramps up testing
- Taking safety seriously: The story behind water chlorination
Tags
- aquifer
- Arbor Hills
- AWWA
- Barrymans
- Blackhawk
- Booster Pump Station 106
- CAP
- capitol
- chloride
- chlorine
- Clean Water
- Climate Change
- Common Council
- Community
- Conservation
- cost
- cost of water
- Customer Care
- Customer service
- disinfection
- drinking water
- Education
- efficiency
- energy
- engineering
- environment
- EPA
- Fire
- Fire protection
- Flooded houses
- freezing
- Frozen pipes
- Got Water
- Got Water?
- graywater
- Greywater
- healthy kids
- History
- hydration
- Imagine a Day Without Water
- Inclusive workplace
- Infrastructure
- John Heim
- John Muir
- Lake View Hill
- lakes
- lead pipes
- lead service replacement program
- leaks
- Lou and Peter
- Lou and Peter Barryman
- Low Income
- Mad City Tappers
- Mad Women on Tap
- Madison
- Madison City Channel
- Madison Kipp
- Madison Municipal Services
- Madison Water
- Madison Water Utility
- Main breaks
- Michael Edmonds
- MWU
- New well
- North Madison
- O'Dea
- Operation center
- Paterson
- Perfluorinated compounds
- PFAS
- pipes
- Placemaking
- plumbing
- Private Wells
- Project H2O
- Project Home
- Projects
- Public Works
- pumping
- Recycled water
- Remucal
- Reservoir Park
- Road Salt
- Safety
- shower
- Southeast
- stormwater
- study
- Survey
- Sustainability
- Tap Water
- Tapping Team
- TeamCity
- Technology
- Testing
- Testing
- Toilet Rebate
- UW
- UW Madison
- Wanda Fullmore Youth Internship Program
- water
- water bill
- Water board
- Water conservation
- Water Main
- Water main flushing
- Water Mains
- Water Quality
- Water Quality Report
- water safety
- Water supply
- Water Tower
- Water Utility
- Water Wagon
- Water Works
- WaterSense
- watershed
- Well 14
- Well 31
- Well 8
- Wellhead Protection
- West Madison
- west side
- Winter
- Winter Safety
- Winterization
- WiSaltWise
- Women's
- Women's History Month
- World War II
- WWA