City of Wenatchee proposes new 8-million-gallon reservoir on Okanagan Street property owned by Wenatchee School District

City of Wenatchee utility officials on a recent Wenatchee School District board agenda presentation outlined plans to replace the city's aging Okanagan Street water reservoir and said the most feasible site is a set of parcels owned by the school district near Crawford and Okanagan streets.

The city's presentation, led by Darcy Ronning, utility project manager, with Deputy Public Works Director Jessica Shaw and Assistant Community Director Steven Neuenschwander, said the existing Okanagan Street reservoir was built in 1930, is past its expected service life, is leaking, and that the city's water system must expand to meet growth and fire-protection needs. "There's no alternative for water. There just really isn't ... We cannot create more water," Ronning said during the presentation.

Why it matters: the proposed project would affect how the district may use those parcels for athletics, parking, future school facilities or housing because the city proposes building a larger tank on or adjacent to the district's property and, in some scenarios, purchasing three parcels and then potentially selling or developing the remaining land. The city said replacing the reservoir is driven by safety (fire flow and system resiliency), system leakage and long-term planning for growth and infill housing.

The city described the…