Ferriday’s water tank will either be repaired or replaced, but Mayor Gene Allen said whatever happens, the town would need a spare.

Last week water supervisor Gregory Griggs told the Ferriday Board of Aldermen the water tank was “deteriorating severely.”

Tuesday, Allen said he talked with Bryant Hammett & Associates engineer Keith Capdepon about looking at the tank and possibly installing a second tank beside the existing one.

During a phone call Tuesday, Capdepon said Ferriday would have to install another tank to run the town’s water plant first while the other is repaired or replaced.

“You can’ t take that tank or else the water plant will shut down,” Capdepon said “There is not way to drain the tank, service it and use water in the meantime.”

Capdepon said the lid on the existing tank is slowly collapsing because of structural deterioration inside the tank.

To replace the tank, Capdepon said engineers would have to know where the old pipes that pump water in and out of the tank were.

“To do that we have to look at the old (water plant) plans,” Capdepon said. “We have some of them (but) I’m not sure if we have all of them. If not, we have to go down there, do some research and figure out where the pipes go.”

To install a second tank and replace or repair the existing one, Capdepon said he estimates the cost to be about $500,000.

Allen said the city would use the $1.2 million USDA loan and grant the town received last year after paying off the debt of the old water plant but he would have to wait on the engineers’ tank design plans.

“As soon as they give us some direction, then we’ll move,” Allen said.