Water question

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council wants more information before voting on proposed watering restrictions for the summer.

“I’m not prepared to make any decisions at all until we get the rest of the plan figured out,” said Council Member Dustin Swartz during a regular city council meeting on Tuesday.

The council tabled consideration of revisions to the city water code that would permanently restrict all homes and businesses within the city limits to irrigating lawns and gardens only three days per week, require residents to use garden sprayers or similar sprinklers with an automatic shut-off valve and require residents to repair any water leaks within 72 hours of detection.

The changes have been proposed in order to limit current city water use, which in the heat of summer can tax the city’s ability to deliver water, according to City Engineer Richard Law. Law said of the city’s 18 wells, 17 have been drilled into deep basalt aquifers — nine into the Wanapum formation 500-800 feet down and eight into the Grand Ronde 900-1,240 feet down. The deepest wells contain fossil water that is not being readily recharged from rain and snowmelt, Law said, and that’s the water that is being depleted across the region.

One city well has been drilled to a depth of about 135 feet into floodplain gravel that is much younger and more easily recharged, Law said.

Law said the vast majority of deep wells in the Columbia Basin are declining at an average rate of about 1 foot per year.

“We have some wells that are declining closer to 12 feet a year, so it’s not sustainable in the long run,” he said.

In addition, the discovery of “forever chemicals” — per- and polyflouroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which do not break down naturally — in the water of three city wells on what used to be Larson Air Force Base if forcing the city to deal with some tough choices, according to Chad Stevy, city water manager. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new standard reducing the allowable levels of two PFAS chemicals in drinking water to 4 parts per billion from the current 70 parts per billion.

“We have five wells at the base, and three have PFAS,” Stevy said. “One (of those wells) is dry during the summer and cannot be lowered.”

Stevy said because of the contamination, the city has stopped pumping from three wells up in Larson. As a result, he said the city will face a difficult situation this summer with lower reservoirs, lower water pressure, and air in the lines if the wells cannot be used. However, as water manager, Stevey also said he doesn’t like putting potentially contaminated water through the city’s taps and faucets and would need to let people know citywide if water from the wells is used.

“I do not feel comfortable not letting the public know that they are drinking water above the proposed EPA limits,” he said. “I think the majority of people would like to know that.”

However, council members expressed their concerns that an air of crisis is being used to drive policy considerations that should be more considered and thought out.

“We’re being presented with a crisis, that’s how it’s being advertised to us, using terms like forever chemicals and dangerously low, and the only way we’re going to get through this is we need to conserve water and all these things,” Swartz said.

Swartz added that the council is also being presented with promises of massive economic growth spurred by new industry intended to draw tens of thousands of more residents to Moses Lake, and said the city leaders need to figure out where they want to go before rewriting the city’s water use regulations.

“What are we really doing here?” he asked. “Because if we cannot serve 26,000 people with water, how are we going to serve 50,000 people with water?”

Swartz acknowledged he was throwing something akin to a “giant wet blanket” on the city’s aspirations for growth, but noted that city officials — including the council — need to be a lot more thorough about what direction they want the city to take.

“Finding new water, that’s what we’ve been tasked with,” Swartz said.

City Manager Allison Williams said the city would provide additional information, including more recent well-level measurements and PFAS test results at the council’s June 13 meeting, but added those findings were not looking promising for the city.

“Additional test results are showing higher levels,” she said.

“We need a lot more data and a lot more discussion,” said Council Member David Eck.

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