OTHELLO — The city of Othello has received funding from two state agencies for an ongoing project to determine the feasibility of using outside sources to recharge the aquifer that provides the city’s water.

The state’s Department of Ecology and Department of Commerce will pay for the second phase of the “Aquifer Storage and Recovery” project.

Tim Flynn, of Aspect Consulting LLC, based in Seattle, said the second phase will take about a year and will start in spring 2021. The project includes taking water from an irrigation canal, treating it and pumping it into the aquifer.

Flynn compared the aquifer to a storage tank, except that it’s a naturally occurring feature.

The water level in the aquifer will be monitored through spring 2022, to ensure water stays in the aquifer once it’s pumped in. One of the hopeful conclusions from the first phase is that the process works and water does stay where it’s pumped, Flynn said.

In the last 60-70 years, the city has been using water faster than the aquifer can recharge. Flynn said the water level in the aquifer has dropped by about 200 feet in that time. The decline has leveled off, and the city has adequate water for its current size. But the availability of water, or the lack of it, will have a significant impact on future development, Flynn said.

The city has been working on the project for about four years. The first phase determined there are two possible means of obtaining water, the first being the use of surface water like irrigation water. The second would be treating water that is used in industrial applications and pumping that back into the aquifer.

Surface water is less expensive to treat, but is only available during the irrigation season, Flynn said. Treating the water used in industry would be more expensive, but that water would be available year-round. Flynn mentioned that the water treatment equipment used in the project’s first phase will be used in the second phase.

Also included in the second phase, city officials made an agreement with the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District to withdraw water from a canal that runs next to one of the city’s wells. Work will begin this winter on the pumping station. Water will be pumped out of the irrigation canal and into the aquifer, starting next spring and continuing through the end of the irrigation season.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].