Medical Lake seeks to decrease water use

At its June 16 meeting, the Medical Lake City Council adopted the Water Use Efficiency Goals for the Years 2015-2020. The city is required by Washington State Municipal Water law to set water use efficiency goals and measure usage every six years.

The city’s two main goals focus on leakage and consumption. On the supply side, which the city controls, the goal is to have leakage of 10 percent, the state average, or less. In 2014, the unaccounted water for the city was 7.5 percent.

One way the city is working toward this goal is replacing old water meters with radio read meters. City Administrator Doug Ross explained that as the older meters age, they spin at a slower rate and read less water.

“The way we would know that a meter is faulty is if it reads that there’s was no water consumption coming from a house but someone is living there,” Ross said. “There’s nothing in those meters that say when it goes out. These new meters will help with an accurate count of how much water the city sells.”

The city is also detecting and repairing water leaks in a timely manner, tracking all water usage and replacing leaking service lines with non-corroding plastic pipe.

“Water is lost in many ways, small leaks, water main breaks, bad water meter reading,” Ross said.

The other main goal is to reduce annual consumption by 5 percent by 2021. Ross explained that this goal is trickier as it relies on the customer. Measures to achieve these goals include continuing enforcement of summer irrigation restrictions and using reclaimed water from the city’s wastewater treatment facility for large irrigation areas such as parks and cemeteries.

Although the city restricts irrigation between 10 a.m. — 6 p.m., eliminating water loss due to evaporation during the warmest parts of the day, it doesn’t help on the consumption side.

“The restrictions help our wells but if someone wants to run sprinklers from 7:01 p.m. to midnight they can, but they can pay for it,” Ross said.

The city is also using its website to educate and inform citizens of Spokane County Conservation District workshops. The Medical Lake School district and city have been cutting back irrigating their fields and parks. Ross also encourages residents to conserve water any way they can.

“Everybody conserving a little can help out a lot,” Ross said.

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.