ML looking at Cascade Valley, Wheeler utility expansion

MOSES LAKE — The city of Moses Lake is looking at ways to expand sewer and water coverage to areas of Cascade Valley outside the city limits as well as improve the water supply and sewage treatment for businesses along Wheeler Road.

According to City Engineer Richard Law, the city is simply exploring what’s needed, what the improvements might cost and where the money to pay for them might come from.

“We have a lot of ideas, but not a lot of concrete plans forward,” Law said.

Cascade Valley, much of which falls outside the city limits but within the city’s state-mandated urban growth area, is currently served primarily by household wells and one small water system. Under Washington’s Growth Management act, passed in 1990, cities are required to create comprehensive plans for utilities like water and sewer, and as part of those plans are required to eventually provide services to associated urban growth areas.

One of the plans currently being considered to expand city water and sewer to Cascade Valley would expand the city sewer main by more than a mile as well as add nearly a mile of 12-inch water main along W. Valley Road, along with the pressure and lift facilities needed to move sewer and water separately to maintain pressure in the water system. The cost is currently estimated at $4 million, according to a recent city presentation.

However, Law said the city is also looking at a couple of routes connecting Cascade Valley to city sewer and water by laying pipe on or underneath the lake bed. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, Law said.

“We’re evaluating projects to see what will work and what they will cost,” he said.

Law said the expansion of city services into Cascade Valley is something housing developers have been asking for, since with city sewer and water, they can develop land in the area to city densities. Currently, much of Cascade Valley is zoned by the county as Urban Residential 2, which allows for as many as four dwelling units per acre and as little as one dwelling unit per acre, according to data available from Grant County.

That residential zoning density matches the city’s R-1 zone, according to data available from the Moses Lake city website. Other kinds of zoning allow for far denser development, with R-2 allowing as many as eight dwelling units per acre and R-3 allowing as many as 15 units per acre, according to the city’s zoning code.

As for the Wheeler Corridor, Law said the region — much of which is included within the city limits — is already served by city water and sewer. The city of Moses Lake is evaluating just how new industrial development in that portion of the city will draw upon the city’s current water and sewage treatment capacity.

“We feed that industrial area through deep wells, and the declining aquifer affects the availability and performance of those wells,” Law said.

Law said the city is looking at alternative sources, such as shallower wells that are regularly recharged by rainfall and snowmelt — as opposed to the deep aquifers of fossil water in the basalt that are not easily or quickly recharged — or possibly working with an incoming industrial customer to construct a water reuse facility that would limit just how much potable well water that particular industry would need for production.

The sewer connection to the Wheeler Corridor, however, runs through downtown, Law said, so the city is also looking at other possibilities — an industrial wastewater treatment plant or a direct sewer connection south under I-90 to the city’s wastewater treatment facility south of town.

“We’re looking to see what makes sense and provides the most attractive path,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com