Maxed out water group meets with City of Grand Coulee

A private water association that provides water services to residents in the Delano area is maxed out in its ability to provide water to people and expressed interest in Grand Coulee taking it over.

The New Columbia Water Association buys water from Grand Coulee, then provides it to their clients.

Wayne Fowler, who has developed property within the association’s boundary lines, has requested water service, which the association approved.

But their equipment — pipes, pumps, and meters — are is essentially at their limits as far as providing enough pressure to get water to Fowler’s property, as well as to the rest of their clients, according to Jan Schrader and Robin Bjorson of the association.

Bringing water to that property would require installation of 60 to 200 feet of additional pipeline, which Fowler is willing to install himself at no cost to the association.

Fowler is also willing to give up one of the meters to other property he owns to provide water to the newly developed property. He thinks that if he disconnects one meter, the association should be able to handle the new hookup. The association disagrees.

Fowler’s property was annexed into the city of Grand Coulee in 2009, but because Grand Coulee doesn’t have water services in that area, and because his property falls within the water association’s boundaries, Grand Coulee is under no obligation to provide water to the property, according to City Clerk Lorna Pearce.

Fowler, at the time of the annexation, was under the impression that he would get water services, citing former clerk Valinda Knighten as having made that promise to him.

“The idea is that eventually that area should be under control of the city and not supplied by us, because it’s your area,” Schrader said at a Grand Coulee council meeting. “There’s real easy ways to go in there and reroute the water lines to make it separate from our system.”

“It’s really hard for the city to take over something it was never responsible for,” said Councilmember Alan Cain, who encouraged the association to continue pursuing a U.S. Department of Agriculture development grant.

Councilmember Tamara Byers stated that water hookups, and sewer hookups for that matter, are not a stipulation of annexation.

The water association is interested in having Grand Coulee take over their system entirely, something the city can’t do without the full area annexing into the city, which the water association says its members don’t want to do.

The association is allowed to ask for more meters, according to their five-year contract with the city, signed in November 2017. But the city can’t spend Grand Coulee tax dollars on updating pipes and pumps that service mostly non-residents.

Time will tell what comes of the situation, in the meantime, Fowler’s property there is still without water.