LEWISTON — The Twin Cities could split the $183,000 cost of a much-needed scrubbing of the Lake Auburn intake pipe that feeds water to both cities.

Councilors reviewed plans Tuesday to clean algae from the intake grates in the middle of Lake Auburn.

Councilors are expected to vote on paying Lewiston’s share of the project at their Dec. 2 meeting. If approved, work would begin in mid-December.

Both cities’ water is supplied by single, 48-inch intake installed in the middle of the lake in 1996. It’s designed to pump water from the center and bottom of the lake, relatively free of winter ice and sediment. The intake is about 900 feet into the lake and about 50 feet below the water’s surface

Regular inspections turned up a few problems until 2011, when lake algae was discovered. Michael Broadbent, water treatment manager for Lewiston and Auburn, said the algae regularly clogged screens between the intake and the water treatment facility in 2013.

“What was happening was the screens were plugging up and we didn’t know about it,” Broadbent said. “The screens were failing, which caused other failures and shutdown of the treatment plant.”

A video survey of the intake last fall showed coatings of two inches along the inside of the pipe.

“Again, we only have one intake line from the lake,” Broadbent said. “If we mess it up now, we’re going to be down for a while.”

The plan is to hire a company to build a temporary intake and then scrub the permanent intake with brushes, removing any debris.

Broadbent said the work would begin around Dec. 8 and should be finished before Christmas.

Deputy Public Works Director Kevin Gagne said the money would be spent from a 2013 bond issue. That money was set aside to pay for water quality treatments to quell last-minute algae blooms this past summer. Those blooms didn’t happen, Gagne said, and the lake’s quality appears to have improved.

“We had an early ice on the lake, a cold winter and a late ice-out,” Gagne said. “The lake seems to have to recovered a bit. We’re not out of the woods yet, but we are much improved.”

staylor@sunjournal.com