Costs mounting as Oak Park continues water tank debate





The Triunfo Sanitation District board of directors has approved a pair of studies to investigate both the feasibility and the environmental impact of burying a new water tank in Oak Park. The tank will replace the aging Conifer tank.

The two studies will cost the district nearly $800,000. Boyle Engineering will handle the engineering study, while Padre Associates will write the environmental impact report.

Palo Comado Canyon and the land across the street from Oak Hills Elementary School above Churchwood Drive in Oak Park are the two proposed sites.

Board member Ron Stark said he was upset that the district will have to pay the the large sum for the two reports.

But district officials said the reports are necessary because placement of the tank has become such a hot issue. A number of environmentalists were upset that a tank in the Palo Comado Canyon would spoil the area’s natural look. Other homeowners do not want the tank to be built above Churchwood Drive because they are fearful a large tank in their neighborhood would affect home values.

According to Triunfo, the engineering study will be $650,000, while the environmental report will cost $144,000.

While burying the tank would be more aesthetically pleasing, the work will cost the district an additional $400,000.

Oak Park resident Jim Kalember, who headed the ad hoc committee that fought the Palo Comado location, said that as a taxpayer he is willing to shoulder the cost of the studies on the condition that the money is well spent.

“It’s a suitable cost if the buried tank does indeed live up to what it’s suppose to do, which is to be unobtrusive,” Kalember said.

For nearly a decade, water officials have said the 35-year-old Conifer tank is unsafe because of deterioration. A geological survey of the Conifer site in the late 1990s showed the tank could slide down the hill if the area were hit by a sizable earthquake.

To better meet reserve and fire code standards, Triunfo plans for the new tank to hold 2.1 million gallons of water, twice the size of the Conifer tank.


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