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Project: Proctor Heights Water Storage Tanks

Client: City of Santa Rosa

Faced with a growing population and uncertainty surrounding future regional water resources, the City of Santa Rosa realized a need for additional water storage in their aqueduct (lower) pressure zone to improve system reliability and supplement emergency reserves. Preliminary planning identified a City-owned parcel of land, located in the Proctor Heights area of Santa Rosa, as a potential site for new water tank construction.

The Proctor Heights tank site is located in a wooded neighborhood, bordered on three sides by City streets and houses on the fourth side. Inside the curve of a busy roadway and highly visible, the tank design required special attention to aesthetics and safety that otherwise would not have been an issue.

Preliminary designs determined that two 2.6 MG tanks would grant the largest possible volume of storage on the site; also fulfilling the City’s desire to have twin tanks for reliability purposes. Fitting two welded steel tanks on the relatively small site required the use of a retaining wall ranging in height from four to 22 feet and stretching around both tanks for a distance of approximately 400 linear feet.

Modifications to piping in adjacent streets were also designed, allowing water from a City-owned well to be pumped directly into the new tanks. This allows the lower quality well water to be blended with higher quality tank water rather than being pumped directly into the distribution system. Brelje & Race also recommended and designed a new pump station on the site, which allows the City to send water directly from the new tanks to the higher pressure zones above. This helps maintain high water quality in the tanks during low demand periods, and increases water supply reliability to the upper pressure zones.