By John McCallum
Editor 

Cheney water emergency forces irrigation shutdown -- UPDATED

 

Last updated 7/7/2017 at 1:11pm



The City of Cheney has enacted a mandatory lawn irrigation water shutdown for residents and businesses. The shutdown went into effect late Thursday afternoon, July 6.

City water resource manager Dan Ferguson said the bearings in Well No. 5's pump column seized up on June 29. Initially thought to be a quick fix at the top of the well head, when the contractor pulled the column apart on July 6 at the Presley Drive well, they found some of the lower bearings had seized as well.

"This will require removing as much pump piping and shaft as necessary to ensure that the problem has been corrected," Ferguson said.

Public Works Director Todd Ableman estimated a "worst case scenario" for the pump to be down would be two weeks from Monday, July 10.

irrigation demands during the summer, especially due to hot weather, typically reduce the level in the city's reservoirs, which hold a combined 4.4 million gallons of water. That demand and decline began several weeks ago, and Ferguson said the loss of Well 5 "compounded the problem."

Ableman said on Friday that the reservoir water levels were 11.7 feet, down from Thursday's 13.3 feet.

Ferguson said any levels below 20 feet require the city to take proactive measures to protect the system and bring those back up. Cheney typically institutes a watering schedule, to accomplish this, limiting residential and business watering to specific times and days according to their address.

The city also contacts large water users such as Eastern Washington University and the Cheney Public Schools with requests to restrict their irrigation. Cheney school officials said they were contacted over three weeks ago with a request to cut back irrigation use.

Under the current restrictions, Cheney will allow irrigation of vegetable gardens and flowers, but residents are asked to use water wisely.

"The more compliance we get the faster we can build up the reservoirs and possibly remove the restriction and allow for limited irrigation use," Ableman said.

Ferguson added that it was important to understand that Salnave Park, along with the nearby elementary school grounds, together with Moos and Sutton parks were all irrigated using water from Well 4, located at Sutton. Well 4 is not part of the clean water system, due to excess turbidity, and is used for irrigation only.

Cheney operates two large wells year-round, No. 1 and 2 located on the campus of Eastern Washington University on Elm Street, but brings on six additional wells during the irrigation season, typically May through September. Collectively these eight wells can produce approximately 3,000 gallons per minute, 4.3 million gallons a day, which is pumped through an approximately 40-mile network of distribution mains ranging in size from two" to 16 inches in diameter.

The last time loss of a well forced the city to impose similar water restrictions was August 2014, a result of several severe storms that passed through the area and knocked out two wells along State Route 904 west of the city. Reservoir levels, which typically are around 20–23 feet, dropped to almost 10 feet.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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