BARSTOW, CALIF.--The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Barstow Chamber of Commerce held an Industry Day at the Barstow Community College in efforts to attract potential local contractors for a $100-$120 million water plant for Fort Irwin and National Training Center Feb. 22.
The facility is expected to provide more than 5 million gallons of water per day to the inhabitants of the NTC with construction beginning this summer.
Fort Irwin Garrison Commander Col. Kurt Pinkerton welcomed the attending contractors and spoke to them about the need for the new facility. “What I wanted to do when we first met with the Corps was ensure that we had a quality product that was built,” said Pinkerton. “But as important to me was to try and figure out a way to keep it [project related jobs] in the local community.” said Pinkerton.
According to Pinkerton, 50,000 soldiers train at the NTC annually and 85 percent of the post permanently assigned community live on the post, which adds up to a very significant amount of water consumed and utilized for day-to-day operations.
“The WTP is critical to the life span of the NTC,” said Pinkerton.
The post population will increase to 95 percent, but construction of the final phase of the post family housing can’t be done until the WTP is completed to provide water to the additional housing.
The three-year construction project will replace the current multi-treatment system as well as use new technologies to process the water to meet state and federal standards.
Lt. Col. Joseph Seybold, the WTP project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Fort Irwin requires the process has a minimum 99.6 percent water recovery rate necessary to conserve as much as possible of the area’s limited water resources.
“The new WTP will utilize a single water electrodialysis reversal technology to purify the water to achieve the post’ 99.6 percent water recovery rate,” said Seybold. “EDR separates contaminants from clean water through an electrochemical process."
The current process uses reverse osmosis to treat drinkable water, and is one of three water systems currently in operation at the post.
Immediately after the project introduction and overview session, attending contractors got a firsthand look at the current systems and equipment.
“I think this is a great effort on the part of the Barstow Chamber of Commerce and Fort Irwin facility to get everybody together and give an advanced understanding of what the job is about,” said Gary Silverman, director of design engineering, Filanc Construction. “This [Industry Day site tour] gives us a chance to give some thought into how to propose in a responsible way.”
The project also includes water system improvement and supporting utilities and infrastructure upgrades.
All information concerning project milestones and proposal information can be found at the Federal Business Opportunities website (
https://www.fbo.gov).