The city of Medical Lake continues its efforts to provide clean water to its residents, as well as lower its overall water usage.
According to its most recent water quality and efficiency report, Medical Lake produced and purchased 286.7 million gallons of water in 2015. This is about a 3 percent increase from 2014 when the city pumped and also bought 280.07 million gallons.
Although water production went up, consumption was slightly down. Last year the city consumed a little over 266 million gallons of water, which is about a 1.5 percent drop from 2014. Medical Lake adopted new water efficiency goals in November 2015. One of the goals is to reduce the average annual water consumption per residence by a total of 4 percent in six years.
Scott Duncan, Medical Lake’s maintenance supervisor, attributed the decrease in consumption to the city’s water conservation efforts and residents following water restrictions.
“We had 90 degree temperatures last May and we were going for broke,” Duncan said. “We started sending out notices to residents who used over 70,000 gallons for watering a small lawn. (City Administrator) Doug Ross has been good about doing that.”
The city accounted for 93.7 percent of its water in 2015, a 2.8 percent decrease from 2014, but still a higher percentage than in 2013 where it had accounted for 90.5 percent.
Duncan said part of the decrease in percentage last year comes from the city using old software to report how much water it sells.
“The city will be using new software that will make reporting much easier and they’re just about ready to get it online,” Duncan said. “By next year when they report their sales, we should be getting clearer numbers.”
On June 30, the service line on Grace Street, across from the Lefevre Street Bakery broke, leaving residents and businesses in that area without water for five hours. Duncan said broken service lines have a minimal effect on the city’s water loss
“We had no big main breaks and that’s what can effect our numbers,” Duncan said.
In terms of quality, the water Medical Lake provided residents in 2015 met or exceeded all federal and state requirements for safe drinking.
The city treats its well water with chlorine to eliminate any microbial contamination of drinking water. According to the report, the city collected 72 samples and Department of Social and Health Services, which shares three of the city’s four wells, collected 36 samples to monitor for coliform. No coliform was detected in samples.
Duncan said maintenance staff set up city testing stations to gather samples instead of the previous method of going into a resident’s home to collect them. He explained that a resident’s dirty faucet or filter could result in a negative sample.
“It is awesome, we didn’t have any bad hits this year and the system didn’t go negative,” Duncan said.
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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