[HollyMutual-Announce] System in full operation

[Mark Derbyshire]

All:

Colorado Water Well successfully started the Whitehall Well and opened
the valve that was isolating it and the three properties north of
Whitehall Dr from the rest of the Holly Mutual system. We're pretty
certain the leak that dogged us since May has been fixed, because
whenever we opened up this portion of our loop, water bubbled out of
Whitehall Dr within a couple of minutes. Nevertheless we're going to
keep our eyes open for the next few days.

With the drama over, we are now running at full capacity with both wells
supplying all properties. For the next few days we will supply water 24
hours a day. After we're comfortable with the system operation, we'll
set the well timers to run during our normal 'hot month' times of
midnight - 10:00 am each day. Ordinarily we would drop this back to 3:00
- 10:00 am on August 16th, but we'll try to make it to September 1st
before making any more changes.

The repair we made was motivated by attempting to restore operation as
quickly as possible with the least cost risk. This left our main
pipeline loop disconnected where it crosses Whitehall Dr, which is the
one fly in the ointment. As long as we can run both wells, or just the
Piedmont Well, we believe the system will function properly. However if
the Piedmont Well fails and we can only run the Whitehall Well, this may
result in reduced water pressure for properties on the west side of the
loop. While we could have also replaced this portion of the pipeline by
digging across Whitehall Dr, that would have more than doubled our cost
and required intensive City permitting and inspections, adding another
1-2 weeks to the project completion.

Instead we had our excavator prepare both sides of the pipeline to
simplify any future reconnection work. By delaying this portion of the
project to our non-operational period, we should realize cost savings by
performing the excavation work during the non-peak season, with no City
impact on our operations. The board has not yet decided if and when we
need to proceed with this second step.

I hope this ends the litany of emails I have been sending for the past
few months, and that everyone has an enjoyable and safe summer from here on.

Cheers,

Mark