Wanapum Reservoir raising could happen as soon as this weekend

QUINCY - Grant County PUD General Manager Tony Webb told Quincy City Council members the utility will begin raising water levels at Wanapum Reservoir as soon as this weekend.

PUD engineers lowered the water in the reservoir 26 feet in February after divers found a 65-foot long, 2-inch wide crack in the dam.

He said the utility would only raise the water about halfway initially to see what the effects would be on the shoreline.

Engineers would raise the water about 3 feet, wait a day to see what happens, then raise it another 3 feet until it reaches 19 feet then wait longer before raising it the other 7 feet sometime next year. According to the PUD's website, recreation would open after the reservoir is raised the initial 19 feet.

Webb said the same mathematical error that resulted in the cracked monolith 4 was used to engineer all of the monoliths so every one of the 13 monoliths would need to be repaired.

He said the incident cost the utility $69 million to repair. He broke down that figure by stating $45 million was spent to fix the crack, $15 million was spent on repairs to the fish ladders and to pay law enforcement to patrol the shore and about $8 million of lost revenue was recorded because the utility was unable to generate as much power during the drawdown.

Webb added the utility was able to take advantage of the lower water levels and saved $2 million doing additions to boat launches at Vantage, Crescent Bar and Frenchman Coulee.

He told the council members that more than 2,300 homes in Quincy have fiber connectivity, and many home owners may not realize they have the option for high-speed Internet.

He added it is the PUD's goal to bring wireless Internet to every home in the county with enough speed to stream movies from sites like Netflix.