Civiltec Engineering Performs Booster Pump Replacement in Yucca Valley

The Hi-Desert Water District serves around 2,400 residents within the Town of Yucca Valley and unincorporated portions of San Bernardino County through approximately 10,000 service connections, including 10 booster stations. The District has recently contracted the design/build team of Civiltec Engineering and Layne Christensen to replace one of the 10 stations.

Located in Yucca Valley, the existing Palomar Booster Pump Station is a critical component of the District’s water distribution network. The new project will be designed to maximize the system’s total capacity in order to meet supply needs, and will pump water from an onsite reservoir at Palomar to the existing distribution main at Altaloma in Yucca Valley.

For this project, Civiltec will team up with Layne Christensen (Layne): a water management, construction, and drilling company. The team will design the pump station to hold three vertical turbine pumps, each with a capacity of 350 gallons per minute (gpm). The pumps will be equipped with a variable frequency drive (VFD), which will allow the District to save energy and extend the longevity of the pump station.

The project scope also includes designing adequate building ventilation to properly manage both the high desert temperatures and the heat produced by the VFD, as well as evaluating the option of installing a surge anticipator valve that will relieve pressure into the Palomar reservoir in the event of a power failure.

David Song will serve as the Project Manager for this effort. He will be supported by other Civiltec team members, such as Terry Kerger and Gretel Ochoa.

Civiltec and Layne kicked off this project in August 2017. Final plans and specifications are scheduled for completion by December 2017.