Summary of assignment: water is contaminated with “POX” and need to figure out alternative ways to provide clean water.

Prompt:
Our vice-president of community relations, George Long, believes that we should be proactive, and should come up with a plan for providing clean water to the residents of Penn Township. He has come up with some ideas, but I need help in comparing them. If you think that we ought to pursue to distinct strategies (one long-term and one short-term), that would also be helpful to know.

1. We could provide potable water in bottles or large jugs/barrels for everyone in Penn Township. Average water consumption is 2.2 liters per person per day in the U.S. This figure does not include water for farm animals.

Total people = 1044 + 749 + 145 = 1938
Total households = 359 + 311 + 57 = 727

2.2 * 1938 = 4263.6 L/day
0.5 L/bottle ? 4263.6/0.5 = 0.527.2 bottle/day ? 3112428 bottle/yr
If average cost of 24 pack of water bottles = $5.99 ? cost of water bottles (24 pack) = $776,810.16/year

Short term ? $2,330,430.48 ? for 3 years
Long term ? $8,369,347 ? for 20 years ? penn township not including millheim and coburn
If including millheim and coburn, long term cost = $15,536,203.10 (for 20 years)

This number is only for the price of supplying the water to the community. It does not include shipping fees, recycling fees, or any other fees.
2. We could offer to install reverse-osmosis filters on every home in Penn Township. The cost of this option would depend on the location. The up-front costs in rural areas would be between $800 and $1,400 per home (the higher cost includes fitting barns as well as houses, and each property would need its own filter system). The “high” range of costs represents what would be incurred if a large amount of the POX in the soil was found to have been deposited in the groundwater. Because of the large volume of water used by farmers in rural areas of the Township, we would probably have to perform annual maintenance on the filter system in these areas each year, perhaps at a cost of $200 to $400 per system. To treat the water in Millheim and Coburn, we could install a centralized filter system in these areas each year, rather than at each household. The annual costs of this system would be around $50 to $120 per household per year (includes installation averaged in).

1400*359=$502,000 upfront
120 * 368 (Millheim & Coburn) = $44,160 (all together for millheim & coburn)
$400 * 359 = $143,600 year (annual cost)

Short term ? together 3 years ?
($502,000) + (3*143,600) + (3 * 44,160) =$1,065,280

long term ? together 20 years ?
($502,000) + (20*143,600) + (20 * 44,160) =$4,257,200
3. Water could be piped in from the nearest watershed not connected to ours. The closest source is probably from a spring on Wenkleblech Mountain, which is about 20 miles away. Once we piped the water into Penn Township, we would need an additional pipe distribution system, maybe 0.5 to 2.5 miles of pipe per farm (depending on the size). We estimate that it would take at least one year’s worth of construction before the system could be operational. Given the hilly terrain in this area of the County, a renewable estimate for the piping cost would be $1 million to $3 million per mile.

$1 million – $3 million for 1 mile ? the spring is 20 miles away
Cost range is $20,000 – $60,000

Too expensive to even consider running a pipeline

4. An effort could be undertaken to remediate the soil throughout Penn Township. We have not yet been able to determine the costs of remediation for our type of soil.

There is not enough information provided to determine the cost of the remediation of the soil type and it can take some time to remediate the soil throughout the Township.
thoughts:

Overall, it would be a wise decision to decide to go forward with the filtration system. The costs short term and long term is less expensive than providing the community with water bottles each year. The costs of the water bottles don’t even include shipping costs and costs to dispose of the bottles. Those costs will also add on to the overall price. The piping system to the spring in the mountain is just too expensive to consider. It will also take a year to complete the project which gives the community an extra year of exposure to POX. There is not enough information provided to determine the cost of the remediation of the soil type and it can take some time to remediate the soil throughout the Township.