The Lacey City Council awarded Malcolm Drilling Co. the Water Rights Exploratory Drilling contract during its work session on Thursday.
The contract, amounting to $407,969.62, includes exploratory drilling of one 600-foot geotechnical borehole at the S06 site and two geotechnical boreholes at an undeveloped parcel owned by H.L. Gray.
According to the staff report, Malcolm Drilling is expected to begin work by mid-September and is estimated to last 80 days.
The staff said it is a time-sensitive project as the city was able to negotiate a temporary construction easement at Gray’s parcel only until the end of this year.
The work would help Lacey determine if there is good quality and adequate quantity of groundwater within Source 6’s water right permitted section.
The city will then enter into a negotiation with the parcel owner if the test wells provide positive results. If the water at the H.L. Gray parcel doesn’t reach the required quality or quantity, then the city will need to find another water source outside, which would be expensive.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed,” said Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder.
Lacey received three bids since the project was advertised on June 15 this year. The three bids ranged from $407,969.62 to $84,411,633.75. The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder.
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AugieH
I'm a little confused. I live in Lacey and the last time I asked a city official at one of our community townhalls if Lacey was short on water quantity (considering the increase in resident population) , he said "no". Rather, he implied the delivery infrastructure was inadequate and that's why Lacey restricts home addresses to watering on certain days of the week, i.e., if everyone watered at once the delivery system wouldn't have the capacity to cope. So, does this drilling project reported in the story seek more underground water quantity or rather a suitable site to increase the delivery infrastructure?
Saturday, August 12, 2023 Report this
TonyW33
Anyone that wants to know what is really happening with H2O in this county should contact the LWV-TC and watch the videos on their water study. Punch more holes in Lacey or anywhere else in Thurston County, or drill deeper, and "come to Je**us meeting will only happen sooner.
Look here: https://www.lwvthurston.org/
Or even better, attend this meeting and get an update on water issues in our county:
https://www.lwvthurston.org/content.aspxpage_id=4002&club_id=461608&item_id=1904133&event_date_id=-1.
This week's meeting on Tuesday 8/15 is an update by one or more of the folks that helped create and write the study over 5+ years. It ain't pretty but we all must get up to speed on the realities.
Saturday, August 12, 2023 Report this
ArmorRngr
Having read the League of Women Voters Thurston County Report on Drinking water futures, I found it to be both helpful and meandering. It has good current data, but the forecasting of future weather, Sound Shoreline height, and employment and GDP data are very speculative and appear designed to create a panic more than give a reasoned appraisal.
The sections on salmon habitat and shoreline health while interesting don't apply to the drinking water issue and are eco-filler to build a sense of greater calamity if action is not taken. Unfortunately, it's recommendations are not creative, scientific or really helpful other then "ration your personal use" and "build awareness"... etc. What may be more helpful would be a plan to distribute Western Thurston county's triple the rest of the county's average annual precipitation levels and a discussion on how we keep more winter rain in the aqua-system perhaps through more catch basins, planned surface diversions during heavy rain periods and increased water storage sites for later dry season use. We have been lucky here in the PNW, graced with abundant rainwater. Now we have to rationally look at practices of other regions who have had to manage their water supplies more efficiently. Not a time to panic- just to use intelligence and create a plan for best use.
Sunday, August 13, 2023 Report this