Fairhope Water System Capacity Examined

Demands on the Fairhope water system will continue to increase and exceed the current capacity in a few years, according to a report on the system. Gulf Coast Media quoted Caleb Leach of Krebs Engineering, the company that worked on the study, that the average demand for the system is expected to be 13 million-16 million gallons per day by 2033. The city now has a well capacity of 11 million gallons a day and a treatment capacity of 8.5 million gallons per day. "When you start looking at this 10-year period and the number of additional wells that need to be developed to stay in that envelope, you’ve got to start planning for it now," Leach said. "You’ve got to start looking for sites." He also recommended that officials continue to develop plans to study increases in demand and plan to improve the system, including considering new wells at Treatment Plants 1 and 3, drilling to a deeper aquifer at Treatment Plant 4 and creating a hydraulic model and water supply study to prepare to deal with increases in demands. Improvements to increase capacity are planned, with work at Treatment Plant 3 to increase its capacity from 1.5 million to 3.6 million gallons per day to be completed in summer 2024.