Othello seeks funding to secure water future

OTHELLO — The Othello City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to apply for a $750,000 federal grant to help the city drill a new well and build a new water tower as part of its $5.7 million plan to improve service and reliability as the city grows.

“Each year your well pumps a little bit less,” said Jesse Cowger, an engineer who spoke to the Othello City Council on Tuesday.

Cowger’s firm, Varela & Associates, received a city contract for $88,000 to do preliminary engineering and environmental review on the water system expansion proposal — work Cowger said was necessary for the city to be eligible for other grants.

“The city of Othello needs to expand its water supply,” Mayor Shawn Logan told the Columbia Basin Herald. “And we have worked out a plan to secure our water for the next 75 to 100 years.”

Cowger told the City Council that it looks like the city can cobble together funding for the project — a $3 million low-interest loan from the state Department of Health for public water systems, a promised $1 million appropriation from the state legislature, and the rest as part of a low-interest loan and grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for rural development.

“Apply for that one last,” Cowger said. “It will pay for whatever is leftover.”

Logan said he expects work to begin in earnest on the water project in 2018 if Othello can secure the needed funding.

“We’re still waiting on the state legislature,” he said.

Logan also told the Columbia Basin Herald the city is working on securing long-term access to irrigation water as part of a major property development. A 248-home development on 40 acres will use irrigation water from the East Columbia Irrigation on lawns in the new development. The development is managed by Angel Garza, a member of the Othello City Council, who will receive around $6,000 for access to the water.

Logan said if the city passes on access to the irrigation water, it won’t get a second chance.

“We want those 248 homes on irrigation water,” Logan said. “The city needs to preserve that. If lost, it’s next to impossible to get it back.”

Logan said the irrigation water will flow through a second set of pipes and is intended primarily to water lawns.

“It’s not potable,” he said. “It’s the same water you find in the canals, and we all swim in that water, so it’s safe, but it’s not drinking water. We’re not going to put drinking water on lawns. That water is too valuable.”

The plan is needed, Logan explained, because Othello is a desert town.

“We live in the desert. Water is gold in the desert,” Logan said. “That’s where you’re going to see your big, huge fights in the future. They will center around water.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.