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KENMARE A storage tank capable of holding more than 1 million gallons of water was hoisted onto a concrete pedestal near Kenmare Wednesday.

Once completed next July, the $1.84 million reservoir will serve Kenmare and other communities north of Minot with water through the Northwest Area Water Supply project.

The tank, located about a mile east of Kenmare, has a diameter of 74 feet and on its pedestal stands about 120 feet tall. Hydraulic jacks had lifted the 216,000-pound steel tank most of the way into place in about an hour Wednesday morning. The weight is minimal compared to the 8.3 million pounds of water that the tank eventually will hold, said Dave O'Shea, project engineer with Houston Engineering.

Workers with Caldwell Tank of Louisville, Ky., settled the tank onto steel brackets in the concrete pedestal and fastened it in place. Today, they plan to pour concrete ring beams, lifting them in sections to place around the tank to secure it.

They also will be installing a steel floor in the tank over the dome that caps the pedestal. Pipes that carry water in and out and handle any overflow will be installed before crews wrap up for the winter next month.

Next year plans are to paint the tank a dark blue, sandblast the concrete pedestal and complete other finishing work and landscaping. Contractors will build a small control room inside the pedestal to house pumps to circulate water to prevent freezing in cold weather and to inject additional disinfectant if needed.

Water coming to the tank will already have been treated. The water treatment process is an issue in a federal lawsuit brought by Manitoba but plans are to treat the water in Minot. Having the ability to add more disinfectant at the Kenmare tank is a precaution that is expected to be rarely needed, O'Shea said.

Completion of the tank isn't necessary for Kenmare to begin receiving NAWS water. The city should have NAWS water to blend with its existing water by early December. Water also will go to Donnybrook and other water users in the Upper Souris Rural Water District at that time.

The tank will become important when pipeline is extended from Kenmare to bring water next fall to users in Mohall, Sherwood and the All Seasons Rural Water District south of Antler.

A separate project at the tank site is a vault containing equipment to control and monitor water flow. The climate-controlled vault, pre-fabricated by Dakota Pump Inc. in Mitchell, S.D., serves as an underground interchange, where incoming water may flow in or out of the tank, into Kenmare or on to other parts of the NAWS system.

Once the system is operational, information generated in the vault will be electronically transmitted to an off-site monitoring center, possibly at the Minot Water Treatment Plant. The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system that will be used is a common means of electronically monitoring water plants.

The vault will be frequently monitored this winter. Future operations call for the vault to get a site check once a week to read meters, take water samples when required or do other necessary tasks. NAWS also will be hiring a maintenance employee next spring for its Kenmare-area operation.

The vault is the eighth of nine that are part of the existing NAWS system.