
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994                   TAG: 9403060008
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PUMPING BEGINS IN EARNEST AT RESERVOIR

With a gush of river water, a decade-long wait came to an end Saturday morning as the filling of Roanoke County's Spring Hollow Reservoir officially began.

As three of the site's five pumps were started up, water drawn from the Roanoke River began to pour into the nearly empty reservoir basin. It will take about six months for the reservoir to be filled to its 3.2 billion gallon capacity.

"Today is a milestone, but it's not the completion of the project," said John Bradshaw, a senior engineer at Roanoke-based Hayes, Seay, Mattern and Mattern, the engineering firm that has been overseeing the reservoir project for the county.

After more than a decade of planning and testing, the pumping that started Saturday marked the beginning of a final weeklong test. Once the pumps and its control systems are running smoothly, operation of the reservoir will be turned over to the county by the contractors, PCL Civil Constructors of Tempe, Ariz.

During the initial pumping period, the three pumps will draw 55 million gallons of river water into the reservoir per day. Over the next six months, the reservoir will be filled in increments, with occasional inspections for leaks.

The reservoir will be able to supply Roanoke County with up to 23 million gallons of water per day. Although the county now uses only 6 million gallons per day, that figure is projected to rise to 17 million by the year 2040, said Cliff Craig, director of utilities for Roanoke County.

"Most of the people who are going to get use out of this reservoir aren't even born yet," Craig said.

Although the reservoir ideally will be kept full all of the time, its reserves would be available for use if prolonged drought lowered the river level and made pumping impossible.

The reservoir covers 158 acres and is contained by a 243-foot-tall dam. The five 800-horsepower pumps are capable of drawing a total of 80 million gallons of water from the river per day. Pumping is fully automated, controlled by a computer at the pumping station.

The next phase of the county's project will be construction of a water treatment plant across the river from the reservoir, Craig said. The earliest that the county could begin getting water from the reservoir is December, he said.

by CNB