Pipe Break Causing Irrigation Outage In East Wenatchee Area

A pipe break at the Upper Columbia Irrigation District is causing an outage for customers in the East Wenatchee area as the heat wave continues. 

The district says the break should be fixed by Tuesday after moderate equipment damage was discovered at one of its pumping plants. 

Orchardists and landowners within the Irrigation District in and around East Wenatchee will not be able to water their properties until the break is repaired. 

The failure could possibly be fixed by late Monday night. 

The district's Brays Landing pipe also experienced a break but was fixed, ensuring irrigation service was returned to the Orondo service area. 

The Upper Columbia Irrigation District was formerly known as the Wenatchee Irrigation District. Its service area includes East Wenatchee, Orondo and Chelan. 

The main reason for the delay in repairing the pipe break in East Wenatchee is that the broken pipe sprayed water onto pump motors.  

In order to proceed safely, the district says it needs to conduct a thorough inspection and ensure that the motors are completely dried before reenergizing them to prevent any potential damage.  

The district said the damage appears to be less than initially assessed.  

Crews were working to dismantle the system for inspections in order to gain a clearer understanding of the situation.