New well to cause flooding near Aguirre Park

The City of Mountain Home began preliminary testing at Richard Aguirre Park on a new city well, Well #15 today.

As a result of the testing, water will be continuously run for more than 24 hours and is expected to cause some flooding in the area.

The city's Public Works Department will work to contain as much as water as possible in the park and then divert the overflow into the city street network using East 8th North Street as a primary corridor and North 6th, North 10th and North 14th East as partial diversions leading into the city storm drain system.

The city is being joined in the project by Layne Pumping and the primary contractor for the project Hiddleston Drilling.

The project began in the summer of 2008, but due to several circumstances, such as scheduling and bad weather, the project was postponed.

The purpose behind the preliminary tests is to determine how much water Pump #15 can pump and after 24 hours if the pump can reach the projected goal of 2,000 gallons per minute.

"If we could reach our goal of 2,000 gallons, we'd be more than satisfied," said Public Works Director Wayne Shepherd.

Public Works will be replacing Well #8 with Well #15, with the older well being sealed and abandoned. Shepherd expects Well #15 to be operational by next year.

Shepherd projects that the preliminary testing will conclude tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. The next phase of the project will include construction of a pump house.ur