Seismic resilience and the ability to pump water from Ashland to Talent and Phoenix in an emergency will come with nearly $3 million in upgrades to the system that links the three municipalities to the Medford Water Commission supply.

The Talent Ashland Phoenix (TAP) water system was awarded funds for the upgrades from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Projects will be put out for bid soon, and work should be completed by the end of 2025.

Besides providing resilience for the system and additional pumping power, the upgrades will help support future capacity needs as the cities expand, said Scott Fleury, city of Ashland public works director. Ashland has taken the lead on the collaborative project.

A $1.62-million upgrade on Bear Creek Drive in Phoenix will be the only one highly visible to the public and will increase the resilience of a 24-inch pipe under the roadway tthat could be affected by liquefaction if a major earthquake strikes. Other work will be carried out inside and around several pump stations.

The design work for the upgrades, awarded to RH2 Engineering of Medford through a bid process, is now 90% to 95% complete. The work will be broken into several projects. Some items, such as generators, have long lead times for procurement.

When the project was proposed three years ago it looked like costs might exceed the ARPA award, but construction prices have moderated since their post-coronavirus pandemic highs.

“Cost was higher when we applied to the state, but prices have come down a little bit,” Fleury said. A total of $3 million was awarded by the state, which handled the ARPA funding.

Cost overruns would be covered by the remaining funds. Should they go higher, they would be borne by the three municipalities under agreements that apportion costs to each city. Current estimates show $2,854,000 in expenses.

The three cities created the system, which was built as far as Talent in the early 2000s. Ashland did not hook up to the supply until 2014. The cities all have water rights from the Rogue River, and the water is treated and delivered by the Medford Water Commission to a pump station in south Medford that feeds a line running to the south Rogue Valley towns.

The 24-inch pipeline underneath Bear Creek Drive would not be replaced, but retention devices would be put in place to keep the line intact in case of an earthquake. The rest of the pipeline is not in soil like the Bear Creek Drive section, where landfill was used to create the roadway in a wetlands area adjacent to the creek.

Another project will increase seismic resilience at the Talent booster pump station located off Suncrest Road. Improvements to the facility to protect delivery of potable water to Talent and Ashland are estimated at $100,000.

Also in Talent, the existing booster station is too small to provide maximum daily demands for Talent and Ashland at the same time. This project will install an additional 50-horsepower pump to increase total pumping capacity to match the maximum demands. The cost is estimated at $138,000.

At the TAP regional booster pump station on Samike Drive, a 50-horsepower pump will be replaced with a 125-horsepower pump. This project is necessary to meet increasing TAP demands when all partner cities are at maximum daily use. The project is also required prior to Ashland increasing its TAP supply from 2.13 million to 3.0 million gallons per day. The project total is estimated at $211,000.

Also at the regional station, new control system software and hardware updates and programming will be undertaken at an estimated cost of $101,000.

Talent’s booster pump station was awarded $445,000 for installation of a new generator. The existing generator at the Talent BPS is not large enough to provide enough electricity for the build-out demands of Talent and Ashland. The generator upgrade will provide full stand-by power for the Talent station in emergencies.

At the Ashland booster pump station, a project involves installation of pipelines and a pressure-reducing valve connection to provide non-peak and emergency supply from Ashland to Talent and Phoenix, reversing the normal system delivery method. The station is near TC Chevy. The cost is estimated at $236,000.

Currently, a 1.5-inch line can send water from Ashland north. The improvement will be at least 18 inches in diameter. Because the water is delivered by gravity flow from Reeder Reservoir, relief valves will be installed to keep the pressure manageable.

“A new bypass can send potentially millions of gallons per day to Talent and Phoenix,” Fleury said. It would be used from October until spring but could be used at other times if there is an emergency need for water in Phoenix and Talent.

“All of these things are great. It gives us better operations and a much more resilient water supply,” said Joe Slaughter, Phoenix deputy city manager. Increased pumping capacity will be required as the city starts to build out the area east of Interstate 5 around North Phoenix Road.