ClearWater Ranch Well Field

ClearWater Ranch Well Field Midland Fresh Water District

The City of Midland was experiencing an economic boom that challenged its water supply. The City purchased ClearWater Ranch to increase the city’s available water supply after severe droughts.

The ClearWater Ranch Project, being near a highway, crossed several large gas lines south of Kermit.

This project and its predecessor, the T-Bar Ranch Project to the north, were incredibly important to Midland, which was experiencing one of its worst three droughts.

Parkhill had developed several alternative routes between the T-Bar Well Field and the ClearWater Well Field. To analyze the routes, we used a combination of aerial mapping, landowner maps, and hydraulic modeling to determine the most efficient route.

Borings produced different types of soils that were analyzed for well design.

Four vertical turbine pumps are the heart of the booster station to transport water throughout the distribution systems.

The 4.5 million-gallon-per-day booster station mixes high-quality water from the Clearwater Ranch with water from the T-Bar Ranch.

Submersible pumps were used in 22 wells to transfer water to the GST and pump station. Parkhill oversaw primary power distribution and hydraulics review, managed the well field portion, designed and programmed an automated system for 25 wells and a pump station, and planned all the pipelines.

Crews installed 12 miles of collection piping and 13.5 miles of 16" and 18" transmission line, for which Parkhill was the design manager.

An excavator is used to maneuver under a large gas line.

The route included a railway crossing, two state highway crossings and several county road and ranch road crossings. In addition, our land acquisition subconsultant coordinated with several landowners to identify their specific needs.

Parkhill also designed the water reservoir. Clearwater Ranch can deliver up to 4 million gallons per day to the T-Bar Ranch. It is estimated that about 15 percent of the water used daily by Midland water customers is from T-Bar and ClearWater Ranch Projects.

Because of its recharge capabilities, the well field is expected to last 40 years.

This project was completed under a Construction Manager at Risk contract. As with the T-Bar project, the project schedule was very accelerated. The time that Parkhill started design work to the time the project was moving water was about 18 months.

Parkhill provided all the SCADA design, top right, to control various aspects of the well field from remote locations. At lower right is the Control Panel, the “brains” of the pump station. The pump and motor speed are controlled by variable frequency drives, lower left, connected to each motor. As more demand is needed, the speed is increased to provide more flow. This also helps save energy.

Twenty-five wells were drilled and completed.

The high-quality water obtained from the ClearWater Ranch ultimately doubles the pumping capacity of the existing T-Bar Ranch because of the ability to blend the two water sources.

The Clearwater project consisted of 25 new potable water supply wells, 12 miles of collection piping, a new 4 million-gallon-per-day pump station and almost 15 miles of 16" and 18" transmission line – all in about 18 months on an accelerated schedule.

The project earned the Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc. South Texas Chapter Public Works/Envi-ronmental Category “2015 Excellence in Construction” Award

Appreciate

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PSC photos