Design of Othello’s water storage project begins this summer
Othello will be moving to the design phase of its “aquifer storage and recover” project, the goal of which is to expand the city’s sources of municipal water.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
OTHELLO — The city of Othello has received about $1.5 million in grants for its continuing project to pump and treat water from an irrigation canal for municipal use.
“We will be going to engineering and design,” said Othello Mayor Ken Johnson. “My hope is to be moving some dirt by next year.”
The city requested and received a federal allocation of about $1.1 million with the help of Congressman Dan Newhouse, Johnson said. Sarah Montemayor, the city’s grant administrator, said $515,000 was allocated for the project in the 2026 state supplemental capital budget.
“We’ve already completed the pre-design,” Montemayor said.
The “aquifer storage and recovery” project has been underway for more than a decade. Othello gets its water from wells drilled into basalt layers deep underground, an aquifer that supplies cities and farms around the area. All the demand has depleted the aquifer over time, and Othello city officials have been looking for another source that will take pressure off the aquifer. Irrigation water can be pumped out in the spring and fall, while the canal is in use, but demand from farmers is lower.
Johnson said design is expected to take about a year to complete. When it comes to construction, the timeline is still being determined.
“We are still working on funding to build it,” Johnson said. “It’s a very expensive project, so it might be built in stages.”
The last estimate for the total project cost was about $40 million, Johnson said, including about $9 million invested by the city to date. Montemayor said part of the design process will be calculating a more accurate estimate of the cost.
City officials purchased about 77.12 acres along Lee Road, bordered by North Seventh Avenue and North 14th Avenue, in 2025. A section of the property was set aside for the ASR facility, and Johnson said it’s still the plan to build it on that land.
Johnson said the search is on for additional funding, which he expects to be a mix of grants, loans and city money.
“We are in the process of pursuing grants to build it,” said Spencer Williams, the interim city manager.
“Our plan is to max out the grant opportunities as much as we can,” Montemayor said.
The project will be the first, or one of the first, of its kind in the state, Johnson said.
“We will be an example,” he said.