By John McCallum
Managing Editor 

Increasing water pressure

Medical Lake council approves emergency contract to build new booster pump station

 

Last updated 8/29/2019 at 7:58am



The Medical Lake City Council gave its unanimous approval to a last-minute agenda item at the Aug. 20 meeting, approving an $87,584 bid from General Industries Construction Company of Spokane Valley to build a new booster pump station in the city’s water distribution system.

City Administrator Doug Ross apologized to the council for bringing the contract request before them so soon after the project bid, noting that the need for the station was too critical to wait until the council’s next meeting in September. The Medical Lake City Council meets once a month from July – September.

“We don’t want to wait 30 days to the next City Council meeting to award the contract,” Ross said.

He noted the station was needed to help boost water flows from a northern intertie between the city and the state’s Consolidated Support Services (CSS). The state also has a southern intertie with Medical Lake, both served by wells in the Espanola Road area.

Medical Lake has two municipal well sources, a main well on State Route 902 at Craig Road and a second, smaller well west of the city on Lehn Road. Because those sources are at the same level as the state sources, both Ross and maintenance supervisor Scott Duncan said it’s often difficult getting water flow into the city’s system.

Ross added that the booster station will allow the city the ability to produced higher water pressure from the northern intertie and “create better fire flow.”

In other business, the council approved the city’s six-year Water System Plan. The state Department of Health office has indicated it is also ready to approve the plan, but requires council’s approval before it can give final approval from the Olympia main office.

E&H Engineering of Spokane recommended the plan’s approval “with the stipulation that there are 4 available service connections until the City of Spokane Intertie is complete and operational.” Medical Lake currently has an intertie agreement that allows the city to receive 200 gallons per minute from Spokane, with the ability to increase that to 600 gpm under emergency situations. A project to increase the intertie water delivery capabilities to 4,000 gpm is under construction approval by the Department of Health.

E&H principal Tom Haggarty noted Medical Lake has a unique situation in that it has a shared water right with CSS. This, coupled with a history of aquifer levels being significantly depleted, creates a “low level of confidence in allowing additional ERU’s (Equivalent Residential Units) within in the system and recommendation to keep the city’s available connections at a low level.

Haggarty noted in the report that there is “plenty of shared water right” for both systems, though the state lacks the physical facilities to reach their right.

“At some point in the future we will need to sit down with the state and decide who gets what,” he added.

During citizen comments, former Councilwoman Lahnie Henderson presented the council with a letter proposing the city include funding in its 2020 budget to hire a fulltime certified backflow water tester. Henderson noted that backflow water testing and cross connection control is mandated by the state to protect public health and the quality of water systems, but that Medical Lake has delegated testing responsibility to residents, providing them with a list of area companies capable of doing the work.

Henderson said the list is getting smaller, and contractors are charging citizens “a wide range of costs” for the service. With water issues in the region often grabbing headlines recently, she petitioned the council to have the city “take full control of our water system” through performing its own testing.

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.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Our Family of Publications Includes:

Cheney Free Press
Ritzville Adams County Journal
Whitman County Gazette
Odessa Record
Franklin Connection
Davenport Times
Spokane Valley News Herald
Colfax Daily Bulletin

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024

Rendered 03/27/2024 20:43