If you are a small water district or unincorporated city you know funding infrastructure projects can be very difficult. Typically these projects are too low a return rate relative to their outlay of capital.
And there are limits to the public treasury as well. Raising taxes or fees can be politically unpopular, especially in small communities without industry or a high wealth per capita populace. Expanding your tax base, increasing the sheer amount of taxpayers is a tremendous challenge in any community let alone a small one. And raising taxes to fund infrastructure can be incomprehensible to you populace as they see no reason to fix what “they” believe is not broken.
But when you are talking about maintaining and repairing water-based infrastructure you are talking about infrastructure that is for the most part underground, like gas lines. The people who know the true conditions of underground infrastructure are not the ones making the decisions in most communities. You can drive by a bridge or through a tunnel and see the toll age and use take on both of these public works, but the same is not true with water.
Now think about a water tank or let alone a wastewater tank, the least glamorous of any aspect of a water system. If your system has a tank it is likely relegated to the far reaches of that system, out of sight and out of mind to most people. That tank also is the least inspected aspect of any system historically. It cost money to have someone inspect the interior of your tank, you don’t want to take your tank out of service, and you must have a confined entry/space training certificate in most areas to inspect the tank yourself, and if you did what would you be looking for?
Basically, until there is a failure of some kind, a water tank is forgotten. So, who wants to spend money on a water tank?
More importantly, who is going to loan you money, or what community would back a bond measure for a project with a 100K+ price tag that only comes with a 1-year warranty?
That is right, 1-year warranty. Unfortunately, if you opt to purchase a traditional bolted steel water tank that is exactly what you will get. 1-year warranty on the structure, and 1 to 3 years on the “coating” in the interior that keeps the water from the steel, a 1-year warranty on a purchase you need to last for decades.
But we do things differently at SteelCore, we stand behind our structure of at least a decade
SteelCore offers a 10-year structural warranty depending upon liner, on our Corrugated Bolted Steel tanks There is no “coating” to wear away, nor be applied incorrectly, nor do you have to drain your tank after 2-3 years to recoat the interior.
There is a standard 10 year structural warranty on a tank that can be engineered for a 50lb snow load – zone 4 seismic – and wind speeds of 170mph.
Additionally, our tanks carry a “no-drain” warranty. This means that to keep within the parameters of the SteelCore warranty you do not have to drain your tank yearly. Across the water storage industry that average 1-year warranty forces you to drain your tank for inspection to maintain that warranty. How are you going to drain 100,000 of water in California or some other Western State? As any municipality or city knows, dumping tens of thousands of gallons of water will get your agency on the front of your local newspaper in an unflattering light.
At SteelCore we regularly attend region rural and small community water conferences, and we understand your financial restraints and the grant application process. We do our utmost to maintain affordability while providing the finest quality tanks with unsurpassed warranties. When approaching a lender or governmental agency for fiscal assistance with a capital improvement project or insuring an asset all those factors make Steel Core Tank an investment in the future of your community.
A new water tank, no matter how necessary, is a purchase that not only is difficult to convince a community to fund, nor a “sexy” issue like road improvement or additional police officers. But, when the time comes to make that purchase wouldn’t you want to know that you were dealing with a company that offered the maximum warranty in the industry?
Reach out to us and let us show you how a quality product and be combined with the longest warranty in the industry to make funding you infrastructure improvements that much easier.