New Well No. 8 coming online soon

RITZVILLE – Stroll the paved path through the fairgrounds and above the baseball fields and you'll spot an orange traffic cone sitting atop a large spigot. That's the upper terminus of Well No. 8 - the newest in a long line of city wells.

Completed last December, Well No. 8 should be online sometime this year, according to city Public Works Director Dave Breazeale.

The cost to drill the well totaled $1,983,287, and Breazeale said he expects an additional $2 million will be needed to build a well house and finish the project.

The new well was drilled 100 feet away from old Well No. 8, which is being decommissioned.

Varela Engineering managed the project and Schneider Water Services completed the drilling. But the project faced many obstacles.

City council minutes from last August reported the following from Breazeale: "The guys at No. 8 are having constant problems. There have been constant breakdowns and equipment failures."

Even accounting for costs associated with decommissioning the prior well, the project was successfully completed within budget.

At the council's December 20, 2022, meeting, Breazeale reported Well No. 8 was "officially down to its depth and drilled 1,575 feet into solid rock.

"There is only a 9-inch deviance between the top and bottom of the hole."

Currently, the city's only operating well is Well No. 9 at the golf course. It's located next to the city standpipe and water tower.

"We don't need to use any other wells," Breazeale said. "It produces enough water by itself to sustain the town."

But getting Well No. 9 up and running was an ordeal.

"As many know, there was a lawsuit for the better part of two years because Well No. 9 was never completed," Breazeale said. "It was finally put online in 2016, and since then it has run pretty flawlessly."

In addition, the city worked to develop a cost estimate for replacing Well No. 7 (also known as the Koch well) at the east end of Dogwood Street.

"Until this year, the Koch well has been one of our most reliable," Breazeale said. "But it started to cavitate, so we pulled it.

"Unfortunately, the hole was so crooked I don't think it will be coming back online anytime soon."

The city has other wells, too.

Well No. 1, known as the "rodeo well," is at the entrance to the rodeo grounds.

Well No. 2 is located at the city shop, 305 N. Adams St.

Well No. 3 is at the corner of Lewis Street and Second Avenue.

And Well No. 4 is positioned between hole Nos. 3 and 4 at the golf course.

None of these wells are currently operating, Breazeale said.

The Journal published a story nearly a century ago - on Sept. 5, 1929 - stating that N.C. Jannsen of Yakima had been awarded a contract to drill a municipal well here. The story did not specify the well's location, but noted Jannsen was "the contractor who put down Ritzville's two other wells."

So, Ritzville has a long history of well drilling.

For now, no other replacement wells are projected.

"But if development gets to be an issue, that could change," Breazeale said.