ML City to acquire new water right

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council voted unanimously at a regular meeting on Tuesday to spend roughly $762,000 to acquire an irrigation water right for 50 acres located just north of the Port of Moses Lake. “That, unfortunately, is what water costs,” said City Council Member Mark Fancher. “I don’t think it’s a bad market price.” The council approved the purchase of the right, which comes from a shallow well and provides 220.9 acre-feet per year to 50 acres near the intersection of Stratford Road and Road 10 Northeast, as part of an ongoing effort to secure shallow well water rights to improve the city’s water supply and eventually reduce the amount of water the city draws from its deeper wells. City Engineer Richard Law said most of the city’s current wells are deep wells, drilled down into the basalt layer, and tap fossil water that is at least 10,000 years old and not being replenished. The shallower wells, which tap an aquifer just below the surface, were used extensively when the region was initially settled, but were replaced by the deeper wells because the quality of the deep water was better.