Water pipeline will get city up to code — after 20 years

Construction begins on water pipeline from Electric City to Grand Coulee

GRANT COUNTY — The City of Grand Coulee is constructing a two-mile-long pipeline to connect its city's water users with neighboring Electric City's ground water source. The project will bring the city water up to code with regulations set in 1986.

"Have we been out of compliance for 20 years? Yes," said Valinda Knighten, Grand Coulee city clerk-treasurer. "Were we ever fined? No.

"We've spent 20 years identifying system deficiencies and correcting them one by one," Knighten said. "This project is the culmination of our compliance of the Safe Drinking Water Act."

Grand Coulee, which has long drawn surface water from Lake Roosevelt, will abandon that source to comply with both amendments made to the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1986 and the federal government's Surface Water Treatment Rule in 1989.

Amendments made in 1986 by former President Ronald Reagan to the Safe Drinking Water Act required communities using surface water sources to implement a filtration treatment system to safeguard their drinking water.

The federal government later adopted the Surface Water Treatment Rule in 1989, requiring communities using surface water sources to implement a filtration treatment system to safeguard their drinking water.

Grand Coulee has been looking for a way to carry out the provisions ever since.

The people of Grand Coulee have been notified of this matter through various open public meetings and coverage in the town's newspaper, according to Knighten.

To provide the city with safe drinking water, the city had to choose between either building a water treatment facility to purify surface water from the lake or purchase water from somewhere else and transport it.

"The initial construction costs of both projects were similar, but the cost of running and maintaining a treatment facility for surface water would be cost prohibitive," Knighten said. "Building a slow sand filtration system for water pumped from Lake Roosevelt was not the best alternative for us."

In May of 2003, the two cities entered into an interlocal agreement for delivery of water from Electric City that is in full compliance with all drinking water regulations and rules to Grand Coulee.

Now, with planning and negotiations complete, a 16-inch diameter pipe will connect water from an aquifer underneath Electric City to residents of Grand Coulee who could not afford to build and maintain a surface water treatment plant.

Electric City has three wells which draw from its aquifer and an elevated storage facility that will be sending the water along by gravity feed towards Grand Coulee. Grand Coulee will have about 1,500-1,800 gallons per minute of water available to its users, but have used less than that amount in the past.

According to estimates by project manager Jeff Stevens, there is enough water within the aquifer to supply both Grand Coulee and Electric City with water for the foreseeable future. Stevens is an engineer with Gray and Osborne, Inc., which was hired by both cities to make sure that everything done on the project is in accordance with the contract.

The city of Grand Coulee will have to pay the project costs. The remaining costs will be provided through grants and loans the city put together for a funding package of more than $4.5 million, Knighten said.

The United States Department of Agriculture gave Grand Coulee $2 million in the form of a grant and loaned slightly more than $1 million for the development project. The state of Washington provided $1 million through a Community Development Block Grant-Community Investment Fund to help pay for the project, Knighten said.

Construction has already begun on the pipeline, which will travel under roadways through the Delano Heights area and on to Grand Coulee.

Stevens said that water drawn from Lake Roosevelt is chlorinated, which sanitizes it for consumption and use, so it will be safe to use until Grand Coulee can begin receiving water from Electric City's aquifer.

The project is scheduled to be complete in October, Stevens said.