Moses Lake’s Well 20 to begin producing water
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 4 months AGO
A contractor for the city of Moses Lake measures Well 20’s water levels Monday before the start of the well capacity test.
COURTESY PHOTO/CITY OF MOSES LAKE
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | April 24, 2024 6:55 PM
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake’s water difficulties came a little closer to being alleviated this week, according to an announcement from the city.
On Monday, city staff and a contractor worked together to start a 72-hour well capacity test on Well 20, city Communications Director Lynne Lynch wrote in the announcement. During the test period, the pump will produce 1,200-1,500 gallons per minute. If all goes well, Lynch wrote, Well 20 could be fully functional in the next month. Once it’s at full capacity, the well is expected to add about 1.5 million gallons a day to Moses Lake homes and businesses, mostly in the Larson and Knolls Vista areas.
Well 20 goes a long way toward replacing two wells, 23 and 29, that had to be shut down last year due to contaminants, City Manager Kevin Fuhr said.
“Last year we functioned being down quite a bit of water, because of the two wells being turned off,” Fuhr said. “So this is actually just going to alleviate the pressure that we had last year and give us the water that we lost when those two wells went down.”
The two closed-down wells produced about 2 million gallons a day, Fuhr said.
Well 20 has sat idle since it was drilled in 2016, according to the announcement. At that time, the city had to go through an approval process with the Washington State Department of Health before the well could be used, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shut the well down over public health concerns about chemicals left over from Larson Air Force Base after the initial pump testing.
“It was drilled within the Superfund site, which is why the EPA didn’t give us the authority to turn it on,” Fuhr said. “But it's not contaminated. The water has been tested numerous times now and it has no contaminants in it. It's good water to drink.
Well 20, located on Randolph Road, is on the far northern edge of the Superfund site, Fuhr explained, so it’s not close to where contaminants were found in the soil.
Over the last year, the city has been exploring all its options to resolve its ongoing water issues, Lynch wrote. Fuhr said Wells 23 and 29 are going to be turned back on sooner rather than later, although he didn’t have a more specific timeline, and the city is looking at more potential resources as well.
“We're working through some issues,” he said. “I think within the next month or so we should have more information about other water sources.”
Joel Martin may be reached via email at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
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Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.