Warden water restriction may be lifted
Herald Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 6 months AGO
WARDEN - A voluntary water restriction in Warden may be lifted within the next few days.
Warden officials asked people to restrict watering their lawns to every other day as Well 6 was put back into service. The pump was taken out of the well as officials tested to see if they could meet the city's needs and state Department of Ecology requirements.
Mayor Tony Massa explained in a previous interview the well draws water from two aquifers and the state agency doesn't want the water mixing.
The issue rose when state Department of Health inspectors discovered ethylene dibromide (EDB) in Well 5, Massa said. The fumigant is believed to have contaminated the higher aquifer near the well.
The city received funding to drill another well, he said. A requirement of the funding was the city needed to start rehabilitating wells, including making sure they were only drawing water from a single aquifer.
Since Well 6 draws water from both the Wanapum and Grand Ronde aquifers, the department wanted the upper portion cased, the lower portion closed off or the well closed all together, Massa said. The upper portion couldn't be cased because the well is crooked.
As part of trying to find a solution which did not involve closing Well 6, city officials tried to see whether it was possible to draw enough water from the Wanapum Aquifer to supply the city during the summer, Massa said.
City Clerk Kris Shuler said the city uses about 2,200 gallons per minute during the summer when people are watering their lawns.
When the city was closing a nearby well, officials discovered the water level in Well 6 was increasing, Massa said.
While the city was testing the well, it removed the pump, and is in the process of putting it back in before summer, Shuler said.
The pump has been placed back into the well, and the city is waiting for the results of a bacteria test before putting it back into service, Shuler told the council during a recent meeting.
"It's been a real concern for myself and public works that we only have one well pumping," she said. "(Monday) was our largest day, and Well 7 ran 97 percent of the time ... but (Tuesday) it's only been 78 percent of the time because it cooled down."
The city didn't experience any problems other than Monday, Shuler said.
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