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Resident urges phased repairs and multiple funding streams to address Mabton's leaking water system
Summary
Resident William Chichenoff told the council the city cannot wait for a single state appropriation and urged phased repairs targeting the worst leaks now, plus simultaneous pursuit of Department of Health and USDA emergency funds to make a shovel-ready case.
William Chichenoff addressed the council during visitors comments, thanking crews for their work and urging immediate, phased repairs to the city's water system. "Our parts are our pipes are leaking now," he said, arguing that waiting for a legislator-driven, top-to-bottom study would delay construction until next summer at the earliest and repeat past failures when costs ballooned and projects stalled.
Chichenoff proposed a phased approach that focuses first on the worst leaking zones to keep costs realistic and make the work shovel-ready for funders. He urged staff to simultaneously pursue existing emergency funding programs, specifically the Washington State Department of Health's drinking water state revolving fund emergency programs and USDA rural development emergency grants for towns under 10,000, and to produce a short engineering memo updating past reports to 2026 dollars to strengthen grant applications. "Let's package the data we already have from the past reports, scale it to current $2,026 via a quick engineering memo and go after all of the all of these funding sources simultaneously rather than waiting for a single check," he said.
The council did not take formal action on funding during the public-comment period; staff later confirmed ongoing coordination with Department of Health contacts and county stakeholders. The comment emphasized both immediate operational fixes and longer-term regional coordination to address falling aquifers in Yakima County.
