Editor's note: Above video is a report from 2018 about the City of Spokane’s plan to divert millions of gallons of water to Airway Heights.
AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. – Normal water operations have resumed in Airway Heights after the city's public works department previously asked residents to conserve water until the end of May.
In a Facebook post from Friday, the department told all citizens and businesses to immediately begin conserving water. The department said its main intertie between Spokane and Airway Heights would be shut off and moved due to an “unforeseen request.”
Shane Dougherty, the Public Works department's Water Lead, said City of Spokane leaders told them that they needed to shut down the line feeding the intertie because the Washington Department of Transportation was installing a new roundabout at Highway 902 and I-90 in Medical Lake.
The main intertie provides about 1,500 gallons of water a minute to Airway Heights, Dougherty said. There is another smaller intertie on Highway 2 between Spokane and Airway Heights.
Spokane city leaders initially told Airway Height's public works department that the process would take three weeks, which would have been detrimental to the the city's water supply. In actuality, the process took about two days and has already been completed.
According to WSDOT, the request was not unforeseen.
WSDOT said a short shut-down has been planned for months due to the construction of a new roundabout as part of a larger construction project on Interstate 90. That's what caused the water conservation request.
The shutdown happened in order to install T-valves, so a water line could be connected around the roundabout.
"It is not a shortage of water supply - just a temporary shutdown to install these T-valves," said Mark Allen, project engineer with WSDOT.
The city of Spokane just had to move the water line before the roundabout work could begin, WSDOT said.
The I-90 project is slated to start in late June. Allen said the roundabout will hopefully be in place this fall and the entire project will likely be completed by summer 2020.
Airway Heights began using more of Spokane’s water after water contaminants from firefighting foam used at Fairchild Air Force Base were found in some of the city’s water supply in May 2017.