East Wenatchee Addressing Water Issues On Grant Road
The City of East Wenatchee is continuing its effort to improve water quality and control.
East Wenatchee’s public works manager, Garren Melton, says a full analysis of potential issues within the city's boundaries is already well underway.
“We’re modeling the entire city, we’re coming up with a project list, and identifying projects that are priorities for the city.”
The greatest area of priority singled out for improvements centers upon one of the city’s busiest traffic arteries – Grant Road - where Melton says there are currently numerous deficiencies.
“From a water quality perspective, there’s a lot of cars and a lot of pollutant generation potential. And from a low-control flooding perspective, we’ve got a very undersized pipe at the bottom of Grant Road, and we’ve seen the effects of that after the emergency repairs we did last year.”
The city’s plan for mitigating the mounting issues on Grant Road includes the construction of a new water quality facility and flow control pond, which would be located on a vacant, city-owned parcel at the corner of Highline and Pace Drives.
The Department of Ecology has already issued an $858,000 grant to the city for the project.
The city’s portion of the project’s cost is estimated to be roughly $142,000.
The city plans to build the facility simultaneous to other improvements on Grant Road that are scheduled for next year to avoid any additional disruptions.
At its most recent meeting, the East Wenatchee City Council approved the authorization of a consultant agreement with RH2 Engineering for design of the project.