$50 million in Malaga water projects moves into construction

MALAGA — A series of major water infrastructure projects in Malaga is moving into construction, beginning an approximately 18-month stretch of work that will add reservoirs, wells and miles of new pipeline to the community's water system.

Stacie de Mestre, director of economic development and capital projects for the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority, outlined the upcoming work during an Aug. 11 Tri-Commission meeting of the Port, Chelan County and Chelan PUD.

The improvements are part of more than $50 million in water infrastructure investments funded by Microsoft in connection with its Malaga data center development.

Four major construction projects remain, including approximately nine miles of transmission and distribution pipelines along some of Malaga's primary roads.

“You'll see that these are on some of the main roads through Malaga,” de Mestre said. “West Malaga Road is one of the main ways to access most of the residential areas there, so there will be impacts, and we're again trying to be forthcoming about that.”

The first project getting underway is construction of two reservoirs at the end of Wallace Road. De Mestre said contractors were mobilizing as she gave the update.

The two reservoirs will provide approximately 1.7 million gallons of storage capacity, including replacement of about 500,000 gallons of aging capacity in the existing system.

De Mestre said replacing that aging storage alone would represent approximately $10 million in infrastructure that otherwise could ultimately have fallen to the Malaga Water District's roughly 600 ratepayers.

Three wells are also part of the broader improvements. De Mestre said they are located together, with one ready to be outfitted when additional capacity is needed.

An earlier phase of the work extended a water line approximately one mile along Malaga-Alcoa Highway, expanding the Malaga Water District's service area. State funding helped pay for that portion of the project.

Additional pipeline projects will connect the new infrastructure while replacing aging portions of the existing system. The final phase will upgrade the district's electronic monitoring system, giving operators a new way to monitor infrastructure throughout the system.

The construction will also affect residents outside the Malaga Water District whose homes are reached using the same roads.

De Mestre said the Port worked with Three Lakes Water District to notify its customers about the projects even though their water service will not be directly affected.

“While we won't be impacting them, we will be tearing up the roads that access their homes,” she said. Those roads will, of course, be replaced after construction is completed, and residents will enjoy freshly-paved roads in their place.

The Port and Malaga Water District held two community meetings in late July ahead of construction and have distributed information through postcards, signs and water bills.

The projects represent the construction phase of infrastructure improvements that have been planned alongside Microsoft's continuing development in Malaga.

De Mestre said the work is intended both to provide capacity for the new development and replace aging infrastructure already serving the existing community, with construction continuing over approximately the next year and a half.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media