EPHRATA – The City of Ephrata is asking all residents and businesses to conserve water after a failure occurred in one of the city’s main water wells. 

“Well Three experienced a main shaft break between the motor and the pump, and we have a contractor coming on site this morning to start pulling the pump to hopefully replace or repair the main shaft and get it back online as soon as possible,” Ephrata City Public Works Director Rob Harris said.  

The well is located on Sagebrush Flats Road and is the city’s most western well. As of Wednesday, Harris said it is believed that the line shaft that drives the pump has broken, halting the ability to deliver water to the system.  

“We don’t know how extensive the damage is right now with the pump in the hole. We can’t tell until we put our eyes on it,” Harris said.  

Mayor Bruce Reim declared a local state of emergency, which allows the city to bypass standard bidding procedures and expedite repair work. The emergency declaration will be presented to the Ephrata City Council for formal confirmation during the July 2 regular meeting.  

Harris said Irrigation Technology and Control, based in Wenatchee, is making their way over to Ephrata on Wednesday morning.  

“Hopefully, we don't have to pull the whole pump, but we can pull it out to a point where we can just make the repair without having to pull it all the way out,” Harris said. “But again, we won’t know until we can look at it.”  

Harris said looking for damages will likely take all day.  

Harris said he estimates that repairs will take about a week, but this depends on the location of the break. Until then, the city is asking people to conserve water where they can.  

“We're asking people to just be reasonable and conserve water as much as they can,” Harris said. “We're not in bad shape right now, but with the possibility of increasing temperatures next wee,k that always puts more stress on the water system. We do need to keep that in mind. But hopefully, before it does warm up, we'll have that well back.”  

The Columbia Basin Herald will provide updates as they become available. 

    Ephrata's Well Three, which helps fill water infrastructure such as the tanks shown here to ensure full pressure for city residents, is down for repairs. Ephratans are being asked to conserve water until the repair is completed.