Members of the Rainier City Council approved a contract for well upgrades and improvements during their regular meeting on Monday, Aug. 11, after Rainier City Engineer Adam Lyons explained the city’s water system has been placed on “blue status” moratorium by the Washington state Department of Health (DOH).
Blue status means a city’s water system is either operating without official design approval or has exceeded its DOH-approved connection limit. According to Lyons, city staff recently did a count of active connections to Rainier’s water system and discovered they had exceeded their connection limit.
“The former count was 730 connections. The accurate current count is 993 connections. A difference of about 263 connections,” Lyons said. “DOH-approved connections is 924, so you’re well over your number of approved connections.”
And as long as the city is in blue status, the DOH moratorium mandates no new water connections can be made.
“We had this meeting with DOH last week … They’re very helpful but they’re very hardline about no new connections. So, we need to do something about well six,” Lyons said. “And that will be followed by a capacity analysis updated to DOH, to show that you have the capacity to add new connections.”
The well will be redrilled and re-equipped to supply 200 gallons per minute, Lyons explained. One of the other two wells currently supplying drinking water to Rainier residents is also a 200-gallon-per-minute well, but it is “being pumped over that” to keep up with water demand.
Lyons added the DOH also had concerns about Rainier’s water storage capacity, a concern also shared by Southeast Thurston Fire Authority Assistant Fire Marshall Matt Russell.
Russell recently updated the City of Yelm’s fire flow analysis to align with current international fire codes and wanted to update Rainier’s as well last year.
“They were operating under the old fire flow analysis. Matt said that was done in the 90s and he thinks it was just done off hand, and wasn’t following the fire code you’re supposed to be following. So he redid it with the head county fire marshal, and your required storage capacity for fire suppression storage saw a pretty big increase,” Lyons said.
He added upgrading the well to increase water flow capacity would help alleviate DOH connection concerns and help with fire suppression.
“It’ll lift the moratorium for a while. But you guys haven’t had an updated water system plan for quite a while, and you’ve added a lot of people to the city and connections since then,” Lyons said. “Capacity analysis had not been for quite a while. So, there are some other items to continue after that.”
While Rainier city staff are working on updating the water system plan, DOH staff have told them to concentrate on upgrading the well first and completing new flow and capacity analysis, before finalizing the updated plan draft.
Lyons stated the cost of upgrading the well is approximately $296,000.
Rainier City Clerk-Treasurer Tami Justice added while they were applying for a grant to pay for construction, the money was already in the city budget to pay for upgrades, though a budget amendment may be required to ensure the money is in the correct fund.
Rainier Round-Up Days
During the meeting, Justice also announced Rainier residents Jim and Debi Holmes are the grand marshals for this year’s Rainier Round-Up Days parade, scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, on Binghampton Street between Minnesota and Idaho streets in the South Thurston County community.
“This year’s grand marshals have spent years quietly making a difference in our community. Debi has devoted much of her career to serving our local school district (and) helping support generations of students, including her own two children who grew up and went through our schools,” Justice said in a statement after the meeting. “Jim had the vision and determination to create what started as a simple basketball court — a project that has grown over the years into the sports complex that brings so many families, athletes and community members together today. Their dedication, generosity and love for this community have left a lasting impact, and we are honored to recognize them as our grand marshals.”
Along with the parade, Rainier Round-Up Days also features a weekend full of live bluegrass musicians performing along with vendors at Wilkowski Park and family-friendly activities, starting with a street dance at Holiday Park on Friday, Aug. 21, from 6 to 10 p.m., with music performed by The Randy Band. For more information on this festival, visit We Love Rainier WA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/weloverainierwa/.
Concerning Wilkowski Park, construction on the playground near the basketball and pickleball courts is nearly complete, with Lyons adding he expected it to be completed before Rainier Round-Up Days.
Additionally, new security cameras were being installed at the park. Lyons explained they were not operational yet as they were still working on connecting them to power, but he was working with Puget Sound Energy to get that taken care of.
