Water plants "effectiveness" low

[igor2 0]

Hi I am finally dragging my cityu out of growing pains, but the productivity of my water pumps keeps dcreaing.. their "Condition" is still good - some 8-%.. but their effectiveness is less than half.

I have had one treatment plant and jsut built a new one.. but the water pollution was always at "acceptable"

What should I check...

I saw something on the forums about pipes being clogged or something?

Water budget (my budget only lets me set levles for Power and Sanitation... not Water...

Thanks for any help... I had one city completely die because of water Failure (I built the pipe right in the middle of indutrial zone)  and this one os much further along.. so I am scared that I will have some failure and lose some 40sim years of restoring this city since it almost collapsed..

Thanks

Igor

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Just make sure that the pumps are far from agricultural land and industries. (at least!!!! 8 grids away) Usually they pollute the groundwater and lower the effectiveness of the waterpumps and towers.

Water pipes getting clogged? Never heard of this.

[DOXXP29 5]

I got so tired of dealing with water issues and having ten water pumps set up next to each other, I finally downloaded some from STEX and Maxis that have much larger capacities. One (Akin's water pump) has 2 million gals a month and never seems to die, but it's kind of a cheat because it costs only a dollar a month. (There's another water tower that provides some astronomical amount and also cleans up air and water pollution.) I've been using one of these in my cities or the adjoining city and piping it in. Also, there should be a setting in the budget for the water pumps. U may have to scroll down the little arrow on the right for it to be visible. (I had missed this when I first started.) And if U use BATS, some of them are set to use incredible amounts of water. I've had the water usage increase by huge amounts only to find out that if I bulldozed a certain lot, the water would drop back down to a reasonable amount of usage. I keep my pipes ten tiles apart. They say twelve is the amount at which everything will function, but I found ten to be more effective and it keeps the narrow strips of area between pipes from drying up early. Hope this helps. The water issues were one of the biggest headaches in terms of eating up my budget and drying up my cities.

[igor2 0]

thanks ... I use completely "stock" Deluxe... so not bats I believe.. I Will try to move my pumps out of the way of industry.. but the thing is, I have HI tech all over town (to cut down on commute)...

but i iwl lsee whether it would work..

please keep the comments coming

Thanks

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

IHT is fine, since they don't pollute. It's ID, and especially IA, that are detrimental to pumps.

Just what do you mean by "effectiveness"?

[DOXXP29 5]

Try putting a stock pump (or as many as you need to meet demand) in a neighbor city and pipe it in to the city you're having problems with. Bulldoze the ones in the problem city. See if that works. The cost to import the water isn't usually much more than the cost of the pumps' maintenance every month, and it's usually cheaper than running pumps that have a low efficiency. Just be sure there's enough water provided to supply both cities adequately or the game won't let U import it.

[bourneid 13]

if you want...you can check the STEX for simgoobers water towers...they have reasonable capacitys and they look great too

[igor2 0]

^^^ I am not sure what you mean I am a sresious newbie to SC4.... this is my first region.

Thanks

Igor

[DOXXP29 5]

Check out some of the threads and tutorials on downloading BATS (lots, buildings, etc. created by other players and uploaded to this site for others to use. You'll find them on the ST Exchange link at the top of this page. It's referred to as the STEX) Simgoober is a member who had created MANY truly remarkable and functional BATS and Mods to address common (and not so common) issues that are found when playing. Bourneid wisely suggests simgoobers water towers which DO look great and have a greater capacity than the stock towers. Go to the ST Exchange link, search for "water towers", "water pumps" or "simgoober". Scroll thru the items, see what looks like might work for you and download them. Chances are, if you're having a problem, someone else also had the same problem and came up with a way to address it and create something to solve it, thus making your life as a mayor much easier. Some of the mods are really radical, some just make things more realistic. Read about the items and see what best fits your needs. (There are also mods to reduce water pollution, if that's an issue for you. "RAH Wat Air" is a good one and there are some others) Hope this helps.

[dpk 0]

Water plants do die off over time. I find I have to replace a large water pump in my main city about every 30 minutes or so of game time (I don't know how many years that is, I play at cheetah). The cost per gallon goes up as the efficiency goes down, too, so you'll get a financial benefit replacing them, too.

I've made a habit of checking out the water and power graphs periodically. In the 10 year mode you'll see a rather dramatic drop.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: dpk Water plants do die off over time. I find I have to replace a large water pump in my main city about every 30 minutes or so of game time (I don't know how many years that is, I play at cheetah). The cost per gallon goes up as the efficiency goes down, too, so you'll get a financial benefit replacing them, too.

I've made a habit of checking out the water and power graphs periodically. In the 10 year mode you'll see a rather dramatic drop.quote>

You'll get a lot more enjoyment and less frantic play by reserving Cheetah for quick spurts of specific development then running mostly in Rhino to enjoy the game and the animation.  Your plants will last longer from an observational point of view, but the same number of Sim years.