Water consumption, production drops in Medical Lake

Medical Lake continues to make some progress in reducing the water it produces and consumes.

According to the most recent water efficiency report, Medical Lake produced and purchased 279.2 million gallons of water in 2016. This is about a 3 percent decrease from 2015 when the city pumped and bought about 286.7 million gallons, which was lower than the year before.

Water consumption declined as well. Last year, the city consumed a little over 254.2 million gallons a 4 percent drop from 2015. The year before consumption dropped about 1.5 percent.

Medical Lake adopted new water efficiency goals in November 2015. One of the goals is to reduce the average annual water consumption per residence by a total of 4 percent in six years.

Scott Duncan, the city’s maintenance supervisor, attributes the decline in both areas to a few factors. First, the city installed new software later in the year that makes reporting water usage much easier. Another factor was the city’s summer watering restrictions — irrigation in Medical Lake is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. from June to September. A third was because of the wet winter.

The city accounted for 90.9 percent of its water in 2016, a decrease from the last two years, but still higher than in 2013.

Duncan attributes the increase in the unaccounted water to broken and damaged water mains during the winter.

“We had a difficult time finding the leaks under the frozen ground,” Duncan said. “We knew something was going on, but we couldn’t find them. As soon as we found the breaks, we fixed them.”

In terms of quality, all of Medical Lake’s wells met or exceeded federal and state requirements for safe drinking.

The city regulates residential and commercial irrigation with chlorine to eliminate any microbial contamination of drinking water to Class A reclaimed water. Staff treats its well water with chlorine to eliminate any microbial contamination.

According to the report, staff collected 72 samples and Department of Social and Health Services, which shares three of the city’s four wells, collected 36 samples to monitor for coliform. No coliform or synthetic organic compounds were detected in samples from the Craig or Lehn road wells. The amount of chlorine in the system ranged from .44 parts per trillion (ppt) to .27 ppt — well below the 4 ppt state standard.

The wells also tested non-detect for haloacetic acids, trihalomethanes and perfluoro chemical contamination.

Going forward, crews will implement a test twice a year for water loss beginning in July. Duncan said the ultimate goal for staff would be to find a way to bring reporting water usage on a quarterly or monthly basis, and bringing the losses down.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].