A map of the irrigation schedule for those residing in the Strawberry Mountain service area. Green (west side of Strawberry Mountain Road) indicates that even-day irrigation of lawns on gardens is permitted, manually from 6-9 a.m. and automatically from 4-9 p.m., while blue (east side of Strawberry Mountain Road) signifies odd-day irrigation with the same timeframes.
A map of the irrigation schedule for those residing in the Strawberry Mountain service area. Green (west side of Strawberry Mountain Road) indicates that even-day irrigation of lawns on gardens is permitted, manually from 6-9 a.m. and automatically from 4-9 p.m., while blue (east side of Strawberry Mountain Road) signifies odd-day irrigation with the same timeframes.
WHITE SALMON — The City of White Salmon has downgraded its water alert for residents served by the two reservoirs atop Strawberry Mountain to Stage 3, or critical shortage.
With the decrease comes a fixed irrigation schedule: Residents on the west side of Strawberry Mountain Road are permitted to manually water their lawns and gardens from 6-9 a.m., and automatically from 4-9 a.m., but only on even-numbered calendar days. The same timeframes apply to east side residents on odd-numbered days (see map).
The Strawberry Mountain service area stretches from Columbia High School in the north to where El Camino Real meets NW Lincoln Street in the south, and east from Paco’s Tire Service to Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which lies just outside the western boundary.
“The updated alert follows the Burdoin Fire posing a risk to the surrounding areas and aims to allow for some preventive watering while we still closely monitor reservoir levels. This reduction to Stage 3 is in place to keep residents aware that one of the pumps at [Los Altos] Reservoir is still offline and the City is still at a reduced capacity,” reads an announcement from the city.
In early June, engineers discovered that one pump at the Los Altos Reservoir, White Salmon’s largest water storage facility with a capacity of 1 million gallons, had completely failed, as previously reported by Columbia Gorge News. With less flow going up to Strawberry Mountain, the two reservoirs eventually ran dry on July 12, triggering a four-day boil water notice.
Mayor Marla Keethler declared an emergency to quickly replace the pump on June 5, and city council approved just over $14,000 toward that end on June 18. The pump, however, requires parts specifically manufactured for White Salmon’s hydraulic conditions, undergirding the prolonged delay.
At this time, residents are still prohibited from vehicle washing (except for licensed car-wash facilities and maintenance on commercial vehicles), filling pools and hot tubs, orchard irrigation and surface cleaning (washing sidewalks, driveways and other paved areas).
“Conservation remains essential to avoiding further service disruptions,” states the announcement, accessible under the “What’s New” tab at www.whitesalmonwa.gov/. To automatically receive important updates from the city and other emergency information, download the Voyent Alert! app.
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