The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) is completing a new wasteway pipeline to address a long standing issue at the lower end of Block 1. This new wasteway will allow water to return to the Columbia River from the canal in the event of an outage at the PPL6.2 Pumping Plant, which sits at the intersection of Dent Road and Easy Street. Having this wasteway will protect the canal from washing out.
Currently, the canal has a wasteway that does not flow to the river, but dead ends on private land south of Burns Road. As this area undergoes continued development for residential and commercial purposes, an alternative outflow for operational waste and emergency outages was required. After a long study and planning effort by the USBR and the District, a pipeline from the canal, running west over the hill to the river, was selected as the preferred alternative.
The construction contract was awarded by the USBR to Pipkin Construction of East Wenatchee, Washington. Construction began November, 2019 and is on track to complete by July, 2020. On June 2, 2020 the first water through the new wasteway pipeline flowed from the canal to the river.
