MLIRD decides not to reinstate lake dredging this year

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District's Board of Directors decided not to reinstate its hydraulic dredge this year.

Board director Ron Covey moved to reverse an earlier decision by the board to discontinue operation of the dredge until July 1, 2013.

Covey made the motion in light of recent repairs made to the dredge.

In the course of routine maintenance, MLIRD workers discovered that the dredge's main 10-inch suction pump was only operating at about 30 percent, said MLIRD general manager Curt Carpenter.

"What was accomplished the last year was with a third of the capacity that the unit can do and will do now that it has been rebuilt," said Covey. "With that thought in mind, and because of the fact that we have the permits in place, in the beginning of July 1, we could put the dredge back in the water and we could continue the dredging project."

Reinstating the dredge while the district waits for permits to work on dredging from dry land would meet the approval of the district's rate payers, he said.

The motion was not seconded.

The district does not have money to operate the dredge this year, said Hansen. The district has about $300,000 in outstanding obligations, he said.

"I do not want to go out here and spend as much money as it's going to take to run that dredge for another year until we've got this obligation taken care of," he said.

Covey said he didn't understand why Hansen wasn't willing to spend money to operate the dredge but was willing to spend money on a mobile home at Connelly Park.

The district has $90,000 budgeted for a mobile home to house a park ranger at the park.

"We could get by without that, allow the dredge to continue and at least the rate payers would see that we're working diligently to improve the quality of the lake, whereas right now nothing is being done," said Covey.

Use of the hydraulic dredge will resume July 1, 2013, said Hansen.

The material removed from the dredge is small, said board director Rich Archer.

"Even if you double it, it's still not enough, it's not even close, and I think to put that kind of money into this project right now, when we've got that thing rebuilt and ready to go, if we are able to go and in and (dredge from dry land), that's going to be an awesome tool for us to do the cleanup that we're talking about," he said.

It doesn't make sense to compare the dredge to the mobile home at Connelly Park because they're two different things, he said.

"The fact that we're having a park ranger up there is going to increase the time that that park's going to be open all through the whole year and so I think that's where our public's going to see an improvement where we use it for our mobile home," he said.