Moses Lake considering mandatory water conservation

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake city council members are considering making the months of July and August mandatory water conservation months.

Under the proposal, which was introduced to the council Tuesday night, during July and August addresses with odd numbers would be permitted to irrigate and wash vehicles on odd-number days. Addresses with even numbers would be allowed to irrigate and wash vehicles on even-numbered days. Locations with irrigation meters 2 inches and bigger would only be allowed to irrigate from midnight to 8 a.m., or on a set schedule that has been given the go-ahead by the city.

“If you remember last year in July and August our daily pumping rate and consumption was over 17 million gallons a day, which was causing some downtime (and) actually caused one of our wells to start pumping air,” Municipal Services Director Fred Snoderly explained.

As a result, the city was forced to impose a similar water rationing schedule last summer to account for the high consumption rate and, according to Snoderly, the public was receptive to the water restrictions.

“Within about a five-day period we actually dropped over 2.5 million gallons of usage a day. So they (residents) are receptive to the concept of actually conserving water,” Snoderly said.

“It’s not a matter of how much water we can pull out of the ground. It’s how much that we can force through there and then back into the reservoirs versus what's being drawn down by the consumers. That was what we were trying to address last year,” City Manager John Williams added.

If the new measure is ultimately passed there would an enforcement element to it. How it’s currently written, a first violation of the ordinance would result in a warning, while a second offense would result in a not less than $100 penalty and a third offense would result in a not less than $200 penalty. The imposition of the mandatory water conservation would be the first prong of a tiered process. The second step would be to analyze residential water rates.

“It is a two-step process. The problem within the rate structure we currently have is being reviewed,” Williams told the council.

There was no action taken on the ordinance during Tuesday night’s council meeting. The ordinance is expected to be discussed during the June 26 council meeting for further discussion and a possible vote.