East Wenatchee Water District officials postpone spending several hundred thousand dollars replacing lines if a developer or government road construction might pay part of the expense. Meanwhile dissatisfied ratepayers wait. How long should they wait?

    Residents on 33^rd Street NW believe they’ve waited long enough. They may get some relief.

    Fred and Lois Wiltse live at 15 33^rd NW.  Lois said, “The water turns the toilet bowl brown in a dirty ring. I pretty near have to scrub every day, maybe every 2-3 days for the last seven years.”

    Fred’s a regular attendee of EWWD’s public meetings. While he has trouble phrasing thoughts at 86, he keeps records. In 1963-64 when he and others requested a new line, they were told they’d have to get on the six-year Capital Improvement Plan. They’re still not on it, but they may get on this year’s revision. 

    In 2000 ten users petitioned again. EWWD responded with a blow-off assembly to flush water where the line dead ends near Wiltse’s home. Orignally residents were to call about discoloration, but currently EWWD flushes dirty water weekly, or less often. 

    Fred recently generated more action. For a week EWWD replaced his meter with a filter between the main and his service line. He presented the 2000 petition plus a year’s record of low pressure at his house. On September 17 commissioners and four residents viewed that light brown filter and sediment at the bottom of a plastic cylinder slightly taller than a blender.

    Greg Brizendine, Director of EWWD, admitted discoloration is unpleasant so EWWD has been replacing lines. Causes of discoloration include a dead end line, hard water, steel and galvanized pipe and chlorinating after not chlorinating for years. “We’ve spent millions to replace infrastructure in the last 15 years.”

Wiltse, Dick Gordon and Jim Davis said the meeting went well. Greg discussed options, such as replacing the main line, fixing sections annually, installing filters at each home or doing nothing. Wiltse recalls the commissioners saying, “Do something.”

    Mike McCourt, President of the Board, told me, “There is no status to report because we have to research it.”

   Gordon, who built a new house, says his water has cleaned up quite a bit lately. He doesn’t think problems are caused by service lines. He took out 50-60 feet of old galvanized pipe to his original house. “The outside was not rusted and not the inside either. Wiltse’s connection is PVC plastic. The filter when it was put in there was pure white.”

    Marilyn Jones, who signed the 2000 petition, said she scrubs dark rings in three toilets. “And then in 2-3 days it’s back. We get a lot of -- I call it -- crap. Sometimes you can go several weeks and then suddenly it’s nasty again. It’s been a problem since we built in 1978.”

    Orneatha Simpson, another 2000 petitioner, hasn’t seen improvement in the 44 years she’s lived there. “If they don’t flush the line, water starts tasting terrible. You can kind of smell it. I throw out the automatic ice because it leaves an odor in the refrigerator. Makes real bad coffee.”

    Davis married Orneatha in 2005 and ran for commissioner in 2006. He may run again in 2011 against McCourt. He said new developments keep getting priority, but “We should get some compensation for being long time customers."

    Wiltse will keep fighting. Orneatha said Fred told her, “I refuse to die until I get that line fixed.”

    Asked if he were optimistic EWWD could improve their water in the next five years, Greg said, “If I were to guess, I’d be optimistic we’d replace it.”