Othello tests potential water source, storage

OTHELLO — The city of Othello’s recent tests on water storage in an underground aquifer were successful, according to engineers overseeing the project.

“You have a very solid storage vessel underground,” said Andrew Austreng, a hydrogeologist with Aspect Consulting, which has offices across Washington and Oregon. “We put a lot of water in it, and it didn’t go away. It is not a leaking system.”

Othello has been testing the ability to potentially buy Columbia River water from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, pump that water out of one of the two canals that go through the city as part of the Columbia Basin Project and store the water in basalt deep underground.

Nearly all of the city’s water is pumped from a series of wells drilled deep into the basalt. Water levels have steadily declined over the last 70 years, leaving the city with the question of how to secure more water.

Tim Flynn, president and principal hydrogeologist with Aspect Consulting, said, “Water levels have declined more than 250 feet in some wells since 1960.”

Austreng and Flynn spoke to the Othello City Council during an online meeting recently.

Austreng said Aspect used Well 3R — the newly drilled well in the city’s Lions Park — to pump roughly 600 gallons per minute of water into the aquifer for 39 days from December 2019 to February 2020. The water was then allowed to sit for three months before being pumped out in May.

“We put almost 100 acre-feet of water in there,” he said.

Water levels rose nearly 30 feet higher than normal during the recharge period and held at around nine feet higher than normal for at least a month, Austreng said, according to monitors in a nearby city well.

The next step involves drawing water from a canal, treating it and pumping it down into the aquifer for six months, Austreng said. That test is expected to begin in May 2021.

Much of the work is being paid for by grants from the state Department of Ecology and the Department of Commerce, said Flynn, which are trying to encourage cities — especially those in arid Eastern Washington — to find alternative supplies of water.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].