Manteca’s third functional water storage tank may be in operation by June 2013.

The City Council is being asked Tuesday to authorize spending $136,205 with Kennedy/Jenks Consultants to design the water storage tank project.

The tank will hold between 2 million and 4 million gallons of water. The project also will require building a booster pump station to serve peak water demands of existing customers.

The proposed location is along the east side of Atherton Drive just north of Woodward Avenue in southeast Manteca. A sign noting that “the future site” of a water storage tank has been standing on city-owned land for years facing the bike path. The city will need to obtain additional land immediately to the south for the project.

The storage tank is more than likely to be similar to ones that already exist and are squat-style ground tanks that can be found on Lathrop Road east of Union Road and in front of the municipal wastewater treatment plant on West Yosemite Avenue across from the ACE passenger station. Each of those tanks holds more than a million gallons of water.

By comparison the elevated water tower on Wetmore Street slated for demolition was designed to hold 300,000 gallons of water. The water tank at Atherton and Woodward could ultimately be built to hold more than 12 times the water as the Wetmore tank.

The 50-yearold Wetmore tank was drained of water after a state-mandated safety inspection determined it did not meet earthquake structural standards unless it was drained of water.

The cost to make the water tower structurally sound to be put back in service is estimated to be the same as building a new tower with the same capacity.  The price tag of $150,000 was given to keep the Wetmore water tower for use as a communication tower as maintenance is needed to protect and improve the integrity of the structure even if it doesn’t hold water.

The water storage tank will be paid for with funds from the water maintenance and operation account that is supported by money collected for water system ratepayers. It can be used for no other purposes except on the municipal water system.



The City Council meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.