Conservation, alternate sources part of Quincy water plan

QUINCY — Like other cities in Grant County — cities throughout Central Washington, actually — Quincy officials are looking for ways to ensure an adequate water supply for the future as well as the present. As a result, Quincy city officials are reviving an old project and working on ways to encourage water conservation for businesses and residents.

City Administrator Pat Haley said Quincy still has water, but it’s approaching the limit of what’s available.

“Once we reach that limit, nobody is necessarily shut off, but we can’t grow,” Haley said.

In addition, all the city’s wells are showing increased levels of nitrates, and one well has reached the limit on one occasion. When that happens the well must be shut down, Haley said, until its water can be blended with that from other wells. The affected well is back in use, he said, but city officials are looking at longer-term solutions.

That search led back to a project that had been abandoned, called an aquifer storage well.

“That’s different from a well we’re withdrawing water from,” Haley said. “It’s actually a storage well, so we’re putting water back in the well. And there are lots of restrictions to that because the Department of Ecology is very careful about what you put in the ground, (to) make sure it’s suitable to drink.”

The aquifer storage well originally was part of a project to treat water used by the city’s industrial customers, who must find a new way to dispose of the water being treated and discharged by their facilities. Quincy has three water customers who fall into that category, Lamb-Weston, Quincy Foods and Amway. The three account for about 57% of the city’s water use, Haley said.

Other commercial users and residents use about 33%, and data centers use about 10%.

The city started the process for permitting an ASW well for industrial users, but it’s an involved and expensive process.

“(Department of Ecology) has never permitted industrial water to go into the ground. So to do it, it would’ve cost hundreds of millions of dollars in trying to make it clean enough,” Haley said.

The cost caused both the industrial users and the city to rethink the project.

“We essentially mothballed the ASW well,” Haley said. “There’s no use spending any more money on it if we’re not going to use it. But we had this well dug.”

There was, and is, the potential to divert and treat water from the irrigation canals that surround Quincy. Othello city officials also are working on projects that would use treated canal water to reduce pressure on Othello’s declining aquifer.

Treating canal water, classified as surface water, is a lot more affordable, Haley said.

“The permitting process is way different, and way less expensive,” he said.

Surface water ASW wells already exist, he said, and there’s a recognized process for permitting them.

Irrigation water, of course, is only available during irrigation season, and farmers have priority in its use. But there are times in the spring and fall when demand is lower when the city could divert water, Haley said.

“We would be the first to shut off. We’re okay with that because we’ve got a potable water supply as a backup,” he said. 

City officials are currently in discussions with the Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District to determine how that system could work. They’re also looking at other options. 

“That’s the easiest thing to do. Everything else is harder,” Haley said.

City officials are looking for water rights to purchase, but they’re difficult if not impossible to find, he said. There are discussions about making water available from the Columbia River, and in that case, city officials would have to figure out how to get the water from the river to Quincy. The city also would have to figure out how to pay for that system, he said.

“The other effort we’re trying to make is conservation, getting people to use less water for their operations,” Haley said. “That can mean a variety of things.”

City officials are looking at a residential watering schedule, and fees for water use over a designated amount for all customers. 

“Somebody’s natural water (use) might be high, but they’re not using it to water their lawn, they just need it for their business or their operations. Because they hit that threshold, you’re penalizing them now,” Haley said. “Unless you have all sorts of different rules for different people. So there’s no simple solution to that in conservation.”

Haley said one key would be to reduce the amount of water used by industrial customers. 

“The largest user of that water is the food processors,” Haley said. “So if you can get a 10% reduction on that, you can get a good quantity to come back. They’re looking at recycling their systems, so they can reuse.”

It will take time and effort to find answers, he said.

“There’s no low-hanging fruit — there’s no simple solution. It’s going to take people working together,” Haley said. 

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.