Moses Lake considers water conservation

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council has delayed consideration of major changes to the city’s water conservation ordinance to May after council members expressed concern over how the new conservation rules would be enforced and the council’s ability to review the rules in the future.

“There should be a sunset clause to revisit this,” said Mayor Don Myers during the roughly two-hour-long regular council meeting on Tuesday.

Utility Services Manager Jessica Cole told council members the proposed changes would make current water conservation requirements year-round, limit summer lawn watering and irrigation to three days per week, prohibit watering between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on watering days, ban it outright on Monday, limit the amount of water people can use on their lawns after a rainstorm and require immediate repairs to leaky water pipes.

Under the proposed changes, residents with odd-numbered addresses will be allowed to water their lawns on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while residents with even-numbered addresses will be authorized to water on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Residents who fail to repair a leak within 72 hours would have their water meters shut off in order to limit the loss of water to the city’s water system, Cole said.

“As soon as we turn those sprinklers on we should be thinking about conservation measures,” Cole said.

City Engineer Richard Law said the conservation measures were needed because of the city’s 18 wells, six need to be throttled down in the summertime during peak demand or they draw in too much air. The city of Moses Lake decided in the 1950s to focus on wells drilled into an aquifer 700-1,000 feet deep, water that’s roughly 10,000 years old and is not being quickly recharged by rain and snowmelt, he said.

“We like that water because it's old and clean,” Law said. “We’ve been mining that water for generations and it’s not recharging. That’s not unique to Moses Lake.”

Law said in December 2022, city residents and businesses used about 3 million gallons of water per day, about a third of which is used by single-family residences. In August 2022, by comparison, city residents used around 20 million gallons per day, roughly half used by single-family residences.

“Fifty percent of summer water to residential users is for irrigation. That’s where the demand is coming from,” Cole said.

In response to a question from Council Member Judy Madewell, Cole said the city intends to go on a strict water diet as well. Already the city has converted four parks – Blue Heron Park, McCosh Park, Cascade Park and Lower Peninsula Park – to lake water for irrigation, and is looking at altering the landscape to put more drought-tolerant plants around the city hall and in city-maintained median strips in the middle of wider roads.

“We want to lead by example,” she said. “Everyone needs to be held to the same standard, and every drop counts at this point.”

Law said, however, the city will maintain some turf grass in its parks.

“We need parks. We need places where people can spread out a blanket and have a picnic. We’re identifying places where nobody’s going to go have a picnic, like planter strips, and how we can do other things there,” Law said.

Council Member Mark Fancher said there should be something in the proposed changes that would require the city to abide by the same rules it will enforce on residents. He added that, speaking as someone who grew up around turf grass, most varieties are hardier than people think.

“You don’t have to water it every day,” Fancher said.

Myers said he was especially concerned about the short length of time home and business owners would have under the proposed revisions to fix any leaks to water pipes on their property.

“There needs to be more thought put into this, and a way for people to seek help if they need it,” Myers said.

Council Member Dave Skaug wondered by the city couldn’t just tap into the lake and use lake water to meet its needs.

“I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around that,” he said.

Law responded that because the city focused on deep aquifer water rights in the 1950s, it neglected any other kinds of water rights – such as the shallow aquifers roughly 100 feet down used by the Moses Lake School District for some irrigation. It’s about where the city of Moses Lake has the legal right to “put its straw” and draw water for drinking.

“I can put my straw 700-1,000 feet down,” Law said. “I can’t put my straw in the lake. I can’t put my straw in the East Low Canal. I can’t put my straw in the shallow aquifer. I don’t have legal access to that.”

Law said resolving the situation would take time, money and political will, and will likely require some painful choices that will, in the end, help the city and its residents become more resilient in the long term.

The council will consider the matter again at its May 9 meeting.

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