An $8.3 million contract to build a new drinking water storage tank in McCall was awarded last week by the McCall City Council.
Once complete, the 2-million-gallon tank will double the storage capacity of the city’s water system, enabling it to meet peak demands during the summer of more than 3 million gallons per day.
The storage tank will supply water to the distribution system when demand spikes—usually between midnight and 9 a.m.—as irrigation systems across the city run and people take showers.
“We can produce that water during the day, we can store it, and then when we need to use it in those early morning hours when our treatment plant can’t keep up with demand, we can draw off this tank,” McCall Public Works Director Nathan Stewart said.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued violations to the city’s Water Department in 2021 and 2023 after these surges led to drinking water produced by the water treatment plant falling below state standards.
The water system currently includes two storage tanks that can hold 1.4 million gallons of treated water to supplement the treatment plant when demand is high.
The tank will be built on conservation land owned by the Nokes Family Limited Partnership in southeastern McCall, east of Woodlands Drive. The city paid the family $50,000 for an easement to allow the tank and its associated pipeline.
A pipeline to the tank will cut through a property owned by Pine Creek Ranch developer Craig Groves of Donnelly, who granted the city a free easement for the pipeline, and connect to an existing water line near the Woodlands Subdivision.
“There’s tremendous benefit to (Pine Creek Ranch) by having this infrastructure in place if they ever do develop there, and they recognize that,” Stewart said. “We worked really hard with them to make sure we put (the pipeline) where we thought it was going to be advantageous for them.”
Work 43% above estimates
The water tank project is funded by a $16.5 million bond issue that McCall voters approved last year for a series of improvements to the water system, including work at the water treatment plant for which the city has not yet awarded a contract.
The $8.3 million cost of the water tank project, awarded to Debco Construction of Orofino, was 43% over the estimate of $5.8 million that was provided to the city by AE2S, an engineering firm hired by the city. Debco’s bid was the lowest of six submitted to the city.
Stewart does not expect the high bids to cause a funding shortfall or lead to additional water rate increases — though the city is already planning to update its water master plan and complete a new rate study in 2027.
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That is partially because the city assumed a higher interest rate than the 2.75% rate it received when it set the bond amount at $16.5 million.
The city is also confident that the cost of the project will come down as staff, engineers, and the contractor collaborate on “value engineering solutions,” Stewart said.
Water treatment plant improvements
Plans for improvements at the city’s water treatment plant in Spring Mountain Ranch are currently pending approval by DEQ. Stewart expects to bid that work as soon as it is approved.
The work would add two new filtration chambers to the treatment plant to expand its capacity to up to 8.8 million gallons of water per day. The two existing filters are currently pushed to capacity during the summer.
An underground concrete basin used to disinfect water with chlorine would also be expanded, raising its capacity from 700,000 gallons to 1 million gallons.
The project, estimated to cost $8.2 million, will also replace the roof on the water treatment plant and add a storage shed for equipment and supplies.
The city is required to complete the storage tank project and treatment plant improvements to comply with DEQ standards.
Water from Payette Lake is pumped into the city’s treatment plant from pumping stations in Legacy Park and Davis Beach Park. Once treated, the water is pumped throughout McCall in 90 miles of pipeline that serves 5,900 city water customers.
Daily water demand in McCall peaked at about 1.3 million gallons when the water plant was built in 2001, compared to about 3.3 million gallons in recent years. Daily demand in the summer is about three times higher than daily demand in the winter.
Monthly city water fees are used to fund the Water Department, including day-to-day operations, maintenance, employee salaries and infrastructure replacement.
In 2025, the Water Fund is budgeted to earn about $4.1 million from monthly bills and about $650,000 in one-time connection fees paid by new customers.
