Lewiston lifts water restrictions

Limitations on automated irrigation ended Monday morning in the city of Lewiston, allowing all of the municipality’s water customers to water their parched lawns any time or way they want for the first time since early May.

“Now that the city’s High Reservoir is restored, irrigation restrictions have been lifted for all city of Lewiston water customers,” according to a new release from the city.

Most of the city’s 6,000 water customers had been banned from using automated irrigation systems and traditional sprinklers from May 2 until Monday.

The maximum penalty for violations, which the city never used, was a $300 fine and turning off the violator’s water.

The city didn’t experience a large surge in water demand in the first hour after the rules loosened, said Lewiston Public Works Director Dustin Johnson.

The city’s drinking water plant, which was recently upgraded and is being brought online, is producing about 5,000 gallons a minute, getting closer to the 6,000 to 6,500 gallons a minute that are the city’s goal for the plant, he said.

“That’s more than enough with the wells to keep up with demand,” Johnson said.

City employees are monitoring the situation closely.

“I think the true test will be (Monday night) and throughout the week when people turn on their sprinklers,” he said.

City officials are requesting that home and business owners gradually resume irrigation, according to the news release.

“During the restriction period, the public water system was utilized at a reduced rate,” according to the news release. “By slowly increasing irrigation consumption, we can ensure the smooth operation of the mechanical systems to handle the typical summer water demands and allow sufficient time for the grass to absorb the water.”

The restrictions were part of a strategy that successfully preserved availability of drinking water, maintained firefighting capability and prevented additional damage to infrastructure, following the Jan. 18 failure of High Reservoir.

After the breach and a deluge of water that flooded many homes and businesses, the city disconnected the reservoir from the rest of its system so it could be repaired.

That left the city without 4.5 million gallons of its overall reservoir storage capacity of 15 million gallons for a significant part of the summer. That’s when water usage soars from about 2 million gallons a day to about 11 million gallons a day, largely because of irrigation.

City residents generally abided by the restrictions in water usage from May 2 through Monday morning, never exceeding about 4 million gallons a day.

“This was a community hardship,” Johnson said. “We couldn’t have overcome this challenge without community buy-in.”

Even though it would have been better to have the fix in place sooner, Johnson said, a lot was accomplished in six months through the efforts of the city’s contractor, IMCO, its staff and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

The gap in the reservoir’s wall was repaired. A new liner and floating lid, which wasn’t manufactured until it was ordered, were installed. The design of the restored reservoir is one that has never before been used in Idaho.

At the same time, the city had to bring a $30 million upgrade of its drinking water treatment plant online before it could lift the restrictions.

High Reservoir is the primary destination for water from the treatment plant that draws from the Clearwater River. The city couldn’t fully begin operating the plant until High Reservoir was ready.

Even though the city’s water infrastructure is back to normal capacity, the city hasn’t shared what it knows about why the reservoir failed.

The city’s repair of the reservoir includes more robust warning systems that will alert city staff about possible problems.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.