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City reports reductions in road pollutants, increased inspections under stormwater program
Summary
The city's street and stormwater manager reported tangible reductions in pollutants entering Moses Lake after program changes in 2025: three sweepers removed 261 tons of material to date, inspections increased, staff received specialized certifications and a recent Department of Ecology audit produced positive initial feedback.
Brad Mitchell, the city's street and stormwater manager, presented the 2025 accomplishments and near-term plans for Moses Lake's stormwater program, telling council the division has focused on reducing pollutant loads entering Moses Lake through sweeping, retention-area maintenance and outreach.
Mitchell said the city's three street sweepers have removed 261 tons (about 522,000 pounds) of material so far in 2025 and that, with two additional sweeping cycles, the program expects to top one million pounds removed for the year. The division has completed inspections at all 51 outfall locations and reported 1,682 system inspections completed to date out of 2,137 scheduled for 2025; for comparison, the department completed 1,958 inspections in 2024.
Mitchell described several operational improvements: installing fence slats at retention areas to reduce blowing sand; distributing a construction manual to over 50 local contractors to reduce sediment track-out; deploying new mapping integrations to target pollution hotspots; and introducing a door-hanger program to improve property‑owner communications during inspections. He also said the city now has five employees with specialized stormwater certifications and that code enforcement and construction inspection divisions each have at least one erosion-control-certified staff member.
The manager said the Department of Ecology conducted a permit audit of the city the prior week and gave preliminary praise; he said the city expects a final report and will present results to council when available. Mitchell listed near-term goals for 2026, including a revised stormwater rate structure for equity, more competitive approaches to capital projects, expanded outreach and a test deployment of drought‑tolerant seed mixes with the Columbia Basin Conservation District.
Council members praised frontline crews and asked staff to continue monitoring changes to state regulatory requirements; Mitchell confirmed Ecology had just completed a full audit and initial findings were positive.
