Commissioners weigh costly pump testing after courthouse heating problems; contractor estimates up to $160,000 for well tests

Okanogan County commissioners spent extensive time on March 25 considering whether to pay engineers and drilling contractors to test the county’s groundwater injection and supply wells after persistent problems with the courthouse heating system.

The central technical question is whether the county’s injection well(s) can accept the volume of water the courthouse loop requires and, if not, what corrective work or replacement capacity will be needed. County leaders and a consultant described a two-step verification: visual/structure checks and camera inspection followed by pump testing and engineering analysis.

Why it matters: the county originally built an open-loop geothermal system for the courthouse and jail; the system is not operating at the expected capacity and earlier adjustments were made to avoid flooding an injection well. Commissioners said fixing or replacing parts of the system could become a much larger capital project. The meeting focused on how much the immediate diagnostic work will cost and…