Another player in the water

Thurston County Public Utility District 1 currently operates a number of small water districts in the area including Tanglewilde with about 1300 water customers.  

The district has water rights to about 70 acre feet of water each year, more than enough to supply its customers but it hasn’t any wells of its own and buys water from the City of Olympia for about $100,000 annually.

Now Thurston County PUD is looking at using its water rights and has drilled a test well near the Tanglewilde pool.  The interim results look good and the utility is giving serious consideration to drilling its own well and using its own water rights to supply its customers.

The cost for the well will be about a half million dollars, but several funds exist from which public utilities can draw funding at very low interest rates. 

There’s a need for hurry on this project.  Under laws passed by the legislature in 2003, all municipal utilities have to use their water rights within five years.  That means that the PUD must have the well drilled and supplying at least 15 homes as required, prior to September.  They think they can meet that requirement.

Supplying its own water to its own customers will be good for the utility and good for its customers.  It should also be good to the City of Olympia which will have additional water which it can sell to someone else. 

And, if the PUD’s well is excellent, it may even have water to sell to the City of Lacey.