Marlene Feist, Utilities Director of Strategic Development, 509.625.6505
Monday, July 24, 2017 at 3:48 p.m.
As the City of Spokane presses ahead on its program to improve the health of the Spokane River, two more projects are beginning on East Riverside Avenue. The City is breaking ground on two underground storage tanks on Riverside that will help prevent overflows from combined wastewater and stormwater sewers from entering the river.
At Riverside and Lee, a 1.6 million-gallon tank is planned. At Riverside & Napa, next to the old McKinley school building, an 180,000-gallon tank will be constructed. The work will continue until the fall of 2018.
While much of the work will happen outside of the public right of way, drivers should expect Riverside to be limited to local access between Magnolia and Lee. Additionally, two one-week closures of Napa are needed for pipe connections during the project. The City is working to coordinate closures between these projects and the current East Sprague revitalization project, which is expected to be complete by the end of August.
With the start of the two Riverside projects, the large tanks that are part of the CSO program are all under construction. Three smaller projects are still in design, with the City expecting to seek construction bids for them this fall.
All of the work is part of the City's Cleaner River Faster initiative. The City is investing more than $300 million in projects to improve water quality in the Spokane River.
In some parts of the City, wastewater and stormwater sewers are linked together and during periods of heavy rain or rapid snowmelt, these pipes can become overwhelmed and overflow to the river. Tanks like this store the excess water until the storm surge subsides and the water can be sent to the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility for treatment.
