ML may end water rationing this week

MOSES LAKE — With the city’s daily water usage rate down to an acceptable level, officials in Moses Lake are expected to end the city-wide water rationing schedule that was put into effect in July.

Municipal Services Director Fred Snoderly said the city’s daily water usage rate has dipped under 14 millions gallons a day, which he says is an acceptable level. He expects to lift the city-wide rationing schedule sometime this week.

“The drop in water usage is directly related to the rationing. People have actually helped us out by cutting back on their watering. So that allowed us to get the equipment back up. We were working on that as fast as we could to get that squared away, so that got taken care of,” Snoderly told the Columbia Basin Herald.

The rationing schedule was initially put into place to give the city’s reservoirs some down time and allow them to recover and fill back up to normal levels. When the rationing was announced on July 10 the city’s daily water usage was measured at 16.8 million gallons. In 24 hours that number dropped to about 14.9 millions gallons.

The high water usage rate, brought on by extreme temperatures, was coupled with equipment problems, with three of the city’s 19 wells offline due to maintenance issues. The rationing limited irrigating and the washing of vehicles. Addresses with odd numbers were asked to irrigate and wash vehicles on odd-numbered days and addresses with even numbers were asked to irrigate and wash vehicles on even-numbered days.

Snoderly said that during the rationing the city’s daily usage rate was up and down, usually falling somewhere between 15.5 million and 13.5 millions gallons per day. During July and August in particular, Snoderly said, he wants to see the daily water usage rate around 14 million gallons.

“If everybody just realized that watering during the heat of the day doesn’t accomplish anything and just responsible watering would help us out a lot,” he commented.