Slip Slidin’ Away

The scene is a child’s dream come true. Wide-eyed youngsters squeal with delight as water from a massive bucket 48 ft. above comes cascading toward them, their shrieks almost obliterated by the thundering rush of 1,000 gallons of water.

Nearby, many children are happily perched on inner tubes, rocking on the waves in a 110,000-gallon indoor wave pool, while others swish their way through the 11 water slides that twist through the indoor water park of Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun, Pa.

Although the children are oblivious, perceptive parents might notice the large, white, horizontal tank within a 6-ft.-high chain-link fence a short distance from the building. Red letters on the side, visible from the window, identify what fuels the fun inside – propane.

Nestled high in the Pocono Mountains, the resort is the second-newest addition to the Great Wolf Lodge chain of rustic lodge-themed indoor water parks and hotels. With 401 rooms, it is also one of the largest.

The Scotrun resort, which opened in October 2005, is the only one in the eight-resort chain to run on propane.

Located less than two hours from New York City, Trenton, N.J., and Philadelphia, the Poconos area in northeast Pennsylvania is an historic retreat for families and honeymooners, especially those seeking respite from the hubbub of city life along the East Coast. Its rugged terrain and difficult travel during winter has kept the area quiet, as natural gas mains and sewer lines stop in Stroudsburg, 10 miles to the east.

Scotrun is a hodgepodge of older retail development and a little small-town charm, epitomized by the white-steepled church and old cemetery that travelers pass en route to the massive new resort atop its own hill. Aside from a busy outdoor outlet mall, Camelback Mountain ski area and 10 golf courses, the Great Wolf Lodge is the first major area construction in 25 years, locals say.

Propane made it possible

Peter A. Tomai, senior vice president-development for Madison, Wis.-based Great Wolf Resorts Inc., admits he was a little uncertain about using propane when plans were being developed. All of the other resorts in the chain are fueled by natural gas, but the remote location demanded an alternative fuel.

“We identified very early on, because of electricity rates, that propane was going to be an important component because of the amount of heating demands at the resort for both water and space heating,” Tomai says. “We have about a [78,000-sq.-ft.] indoor water park there with millions of Btus of water heating and space heating, so it’s a very heat-intensive operation.”

In fact, the $92 million resort reports some impressive numbers. It heats 380,000 gallons of water just for the water park; 1 million gallons of water are pumped per hour; four boilers output 13 million Btu to heat the water to a consistent 84 degrees, combined with six boilers for general housekeeping use, the resort requires capacity for 43 million Btu at peak; 2,000 gallons of propane are used daily, with an expected increase of 3,000 to 4,000 gallons daily in winter; a massive stone fireplace, fueled by propane, warms the atmosphere of the 6,600-square-foot Grand Lobby of the four-story, log-sided resort; and each of the 401 suites includes a vent-free propane fireplace.

At Great Wolf Lodge, 2,000 gallons of propane are used daily, with an expected increase to 3,000 to 4,000 gallons in winter. Clockwise from top: water boilers; pipe connections outside the boiler room; vaporizers; and a 30,000-gallon storage tank.

In addition to the water park, the resort includes a 6,000-sq.-ft. arcade, fitness room, crafts club for the children, two themed restaurants, gift shop, a spa, an outdoor pool area, a fitness room and more than 6,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, including a tiered audio/visual symposium.

“Not only are our needs 365 days a year, they’re 24 hours a day because in the evenings, when we’re not heating the pool, we’re doing thousands of pounds of laundry and dishes in our restaurants, all of which require hot water,” Tomai says. “So far we’ve had no issues with the propane.”

Designed to stay online

Ensuring the resort has plenty of heat has been a top priority for Inergy Corp. and its local wholly owned subsidiary, H. John Davis. Inergy’s Joe Mercurio, a regional commercial sales representative, designed a utility system to have redundancies so that, even if there were a failure, resort activities could continue without interruption.

From left: Tom Vincent, resort director of engineering; Terry Brazill, H. John Davis branch manger; and Josh Barro, resort maintenance supervisor.

The system includes two industrial vaporizers with life spans of 15 to 20 years – compared with the standard direct-fired type with life spans of about six to seven years, according to Mercurio – to prolong the time before major repairs are necessary. The industrial type also helps to prevent pilot outages because of the windy hill on which the resort is located.

“Each one of the vaporizers can independently support the needs of that complex,” Mercurio says. “If it would fail, they’d have to shut down for a day or two. There’s no way they can do that; the money they’d lose would be tremendous.”

Right now, one 30,000-gallon tank supplies propane to the resort, but room inside the fence and piping has been placed underground to support a second tank the same size. Mercurio said he recommended planning for that second tank because propane deliveries can be difficult in winter and, because fills come every three or four days in the summer alone, he wants the resort to be prepared.

“We recommended two primarily because of the supply situation if we have a horrific winter,” says Terry Brazill, branch manager of H. John Davis. “We’ve had some hellacious ice storms here.”

Tom Vincent, director of engineering at the resort, said Great Wolf officials will watch the propane usage to determine whether that second tank will be necessary.

“This is truly a utility system,” Brazill says. “It’s not just a tank heating a pool. We do everything a utility would do, without the lines. We literally are a utility system, not just an equipment installer.”

A remote tank monitoring system informs Brazill twice a day, at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m., how much propane remains in the resort’s tank. When it’s down to 30 percent, a bobtail arrives to deliver a new load, Brazill said.

Plastic pipes, 1-1/2-in. wide, deliver propane to the outdoor pool area and concession stand, which needs fuel for cooking. Four-inch lines travel to the resort’s boiler room, where gauges monitor how much propane is used for the water park versus the rest of the lodge. Another system in the boiler room monitors the vaporizers; every hour, maintenance crews are instructed to check electronic pressure switches on a regulator board to make sure everything is okay.

Aside from one glitch in which five gallons of glycol had to be added to one vaporizer, the propane systems have worked perfectly.

“This is probably the least of any headaches we’ve had,” says Vincent, who joined Great Wolf in March.

Water, water everywhere

The resort has had its share of headaches – mostly because it’s been immensely popular. Resort officials have been stunned by its consistently high – about 90 percent – occupancy since it opened. That high usage served to accentuate problems with its own water treatment facility, another Great Wolf first required by the remote location.

At an indoor water park and resort the size of Great Wolf, water is key. In addition to the four boilers that heat water for the pools and hot tubs, eight boilers heat water for the general lodge use – one for laundry, four for cooking, showers and restrooms and three for HVAC.

In the first six months that the resort was open, the park used more than 25 million gallons of water and the hotel consumed 13 million gallons. All of the water used in the water park is cleaned and recycled within the park, Vincent said.

Because there is no municipal sewer plant, the resort built its own water facility downhill from the hotel to treat and release up to 90,000 gallons daily into the nearby Scot Run.

The stream, a favorite trout fishing spot, was slightly damaged when a grease trap failed at the resort this spring. For one week, Great Wolf had to truck its sewage to a municipal treatment facility 40 miles away while it waited for a new grease trap to be installed. Now that the problem is fixed and stream life on the mend, the resort sprays 35 percent of its treated wastewater into the trees along its perimeter, where it is absorbed slowly by the hillside, Vincent said.

Safety and consistency

Although Great Wolf does not plan to expand its use of propane at this time, Tomai said he has been satisfied with results at the Scotrun resort.

“I truly think that, as with any gas product, there’s a great burden to be sure that safety is paramount and that there’s no leaks and there’s leak detectors wherever we would need them, because we can’t afford to sacrifice safety,” Tomai says. “Safety and consistency are two of our central cores, and the system has been able to meet both of those.”

As the park continues to operate uninterrupted, it is inspiring other developments in the area, including two proposed, state-licensed casinos. Brazill said he expects a lot more businesses will take advantage of propane’s versatility.

“Our product has the ability to satisfy where no one else can,” Brazill says. “This is the growth I like.”