Airport water flow too low

By Dan Daly, Journal staff | Tuesday, April 10, 2007

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RAPID CITY — A lack of water flow to Rapid City Regional Airport could put a crimp in construction of new hangars, buildings or other new development at the airport, a fire department official warned on Monday.

“There’s great potential growth for this complex. I’d hate to see that held up by water flow (problems),” said Tim Behlings, fire inspector for the Rapid City Department of Fire & Emergency Services. He spoke to the Rapid City Regional Airport Board at its meeting Monday morning.

When the Rapid City Regional Airport terminal was built in 1989, the city extended a 12-inch water line to the airport. Under fire codes, a building that size with fire sprinklers — which reduce the need for water because they quickly contain small fires before they can grow — requires a flow of 1,500 gallons per minute.

Between 1996 and 2006, fire officials have measured the water flow at the airport a number of times. And each time, the flow has always been inadequate to fight the kind of fire that could happen there.

In the terminal building, water flow has ranged from 950 gpm to about 1,350 gpm. Today, it’s about 1,100 gpm.

At the other end of the airport, where the hangars and general aviation operations are, the flow has been even worse, in the range of 600 to 750 gpm at various times.

Meanwhile, the airport itself has seen a lot of growth and construction since 1989. The National Guard has built a huge facility, and private facilities such as the big Fightertown hangar have sprung up. And residential growth along the 12-inch pipeline from central Rapid City to the airport has siphoned off some of the water since 1989.

Valve replacements and other projects have improved the flow somewhat. One project planned for this year will enlarge and loop the water lines at the airport itself. That would improve water flow to the general aviation area.

But the larger problem remains — there’s just not enough water to go around.

Because of the water flow problems, the Rapid City Fire Department has taken the position since 2005 that it opposes any new hangars or other construction at the airport.

“We’ve found some ways to make it work, but we’re really hanging out there as far as liability,” Behlings said.

One way to make it work has been to require sprinkler systems for any new hangars, even those smaller than 3,600 square feet. That has private pilots such as David Schwietert crying foul.

Schwietert told the airport board Monday that sprinkler requirements often make private hangars more expensive than the planes they house. General aviation fliers will go to Spearfish or some other airport, and general aviation at Rapid City will suffer.

Don Rydstrom of Westjet Air Center, the largest general aviation operation at the airport, said he’s concerned that water woes will hurt his business. If water flow to his hangar falls too low, he fears the fire department could revoke his certificate of occupancy.

Ideally, Behlings said, the airport should have a water system large enough to deliver 3,000 gallons a minute to the airport. And if, for some reason, the 12-inch line from Rapid City is broken or blocked, a backup water source would be good.

Any fixes would be expensive. One idea that airport officials discussed Monday would be to build a 500,000-gallon storage tank on Radar Hill ridge with a line connecting to the airport’s current water system. The existing 12-inch water line could keep the storage tank filled, and in an emergency the water could flow from both sources to fight an airport fire. It’s a fix that could cost as much as $2 million, Behlings said.

Airport officials also talked about drilling wells, building storage tanks at the airport and extending a second water line to the airport. However, most of the airport’s money comes from the Federal Aviation Administration and can’t be spent off the airport. Therefore, the city of Rapid City would likely have to come up with a solution.

Board members voted to pursue the issue with city officials to see what kind of solution might be available.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com