Over extended

Cheney knows more about water woes than most small communities, and the beginning of 2019 is shaping up to be more of the same. State records indicated that the city’s water system is over-connected by more than 600 connections, causing the state Department of Health (DOH) to place Cheney in a “blue” category, designating the city’s system as “not adequate for growth.”

In the blue

Water permits from the state Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water are color-coded based on the permitted entity’s compliance with state regulations. A green system is substantially in compliance, while yellow is for systems that have not satisfied a planning requirement or has a significant violation. Blue systems either do not meet design approval or have exceeded the number of approved connections, making the system adequate for existing uses, but not adequate for growth.

Red systems are in substantial non-compliance and are not adequate for existing uses or growth, and placement in this category could result in building permits, liquor and food licenses, on-site sewage disposal permits and other vital documents being denied. Lending institutions may also choose not to finance loans associated with properties with a red permit.

According to Cheney’s public water system operating permit, issued in December 2018, the city has been given a permit color of “blue” because the system has exceeded the number of connections approved by the DOH. To bring the system into compliance, the city must reduce the number of connections or get DOH approval for its existing connections based on proof of adequate supply.

According to DOH records, Cheney is approved for 4,359 connections to its water system. As of the end of last year, it had exceeded that number by about 606 connections, with at least 4,965 active connections currently in use.

The number of connections approved for a given community is based on a large number of factors and one is how many hookups the system can safely accommodate, according to Matt Hadron with the state Office of Drinking Water’s water facilities program.

Cheney Public Works Director Todd Ableman is quick to point out that the blue rating is not automatically indicative of a supply issue, clarifying that it’s based not just on the number of active connections but on the number of connections the city’s water system can provide for all year around.

“You have to be actively planning to increase water production, and we are,” Ableman said. “We’ve been working on Well 3, so we just have to update those numbers and we should be back in the green.”

No problem just yet

Stan Hoffman with the Office of Drinking Water’s chemical water quality monitoring program noted that as long as a community has the capacity to deliver, the exceeded number of connections shouldn’t cause an immediate problem.

“Just the fact that they’re over-connected doesn’t mean there’s a public health problem,” Hoffman said.

Cheney’s water production is less of a concern in the chilly winter months, when the city is pumping about 700 gallons per minute, Ableman said. That number is not a concern, since the city’s wells have a total pumping capacity of about 2,200 gallons per minute.

But in the hot summer months of June, July and August, that number can skyrocket, with the city “going full-bore” and relying on all of its wells to keep up.

“Basically (the blue rating) says you need to up your production,” Ableman said. “If the issue continued without being addressed, then it could become a supply issue.”

It’s the hope of city officials that the development of Well No. 3 will keep the wolves from the door. That well could produce about 1,500 gallons per minute, giving the city a total capacity of 3,700 gallons per minute. However, the new well No. 3 is not yet fully functional.

Technically, Cheney has the water rights for 5,400 gallons per minute — if it could fund the wells and infrastructure to produce it. According to the DOH, Cheney should be using about 1,162 gallons per minute but is currently using about 1,324 gallons per minute and must demonstrate it has the capacity to serve future growth.

“It would be a different story if we didn’t have Well 3,” Ableman said. “But I still don’t think that’s our magic silver bullet, and we always need to be planning ahead.”

Saving for the future

To Ableman, a large part of that planning ahead is addressing local irrigation, which he says is directly to blame for the most recent blue rating.

In the summer, the city often requires schools and other large irrigators to stop watering sports fields and green spaces, causing them to dry up and school officials to claim that the parched fields could be a hazard to students.

“We have to address irrigation, and I don’t think that necessarily means stopping it,” Ableman said. “I think it would be better to look at incentives or reuse, or things like drought tolerant planting.”

Another potential issue is the tendency of wells to drop off in productivity, as several Cheney wells have done in the past.

Ableman said he does not anticipate this happening with Well No. 3 again, but even if it does, city operators will have a bit of warning.

“When the pumping capacity goes down but the static water level goes up, we know it’s probably a mechanical issue we need to address,” Ableman said. “I don’t see that happening now — when you look at our planning horizon we should be fine, and when you look at our new production that’ll give us some breathing room.”

Ableman also doesn’t expect a building moratorium based on water supply, which has been enacted in Cheney in the past. However, he said the city will have to plan for yet another well as housing increases, and Cheney leaders and residents will have to be “conscientious about conservation.”

Cheney is currently in a 4 percent growth pattern, with several subdivisions going through the permitting process for development this summer. More than 10,500 people are served by Cheney’s water system for the majority of the year.

“If growth continued to be an issue and we had no funding sources or weren’t addressing it, in that event we would have to look at curtailing development,” Ableman said. “But theoretically right now we could have lots more development, because we have plenty of capacity.”

The city recently received an extension on the Water System Plan to submit to the DOH, and Ableman anticipates resolving the issue in no time.

“I would imagine within the next couple months we’ll be back in the green,” Ableman said. “We plan to build a well house and our full intention is to have that up and running by irrigation season.”

Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].