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Parks & Recreation

Cannon Hill Pond & Irrigation Project

Cannon Hil Park Pond Restoration Restoration

Project Overview

Status

Planning

Construction Estimate

$1.75M

Description

Cannon Hill Pond, a man-made pond, and the irrigation system for Cannon Hill Park together consume approximately 25 million gallons of water each year. This figure includes water used for filling the pond and the inefficiencies of the current irrigation system.

Currently, Cannon Hill Park is the least efficient user of water among all city parks and golf courses, utilizing about 2 million gallons per acre each year. In comparison, other city parks and golf courses average only 500,000 gallons per acre annually. Notably, the four city golf courses, classified as "high users" of city water, consume about 450,000 gallons per acre per year—over four times less than Cannon Hill Park.

To address these issues, a rehabilitation project will add a liner to the pond to reduce leakage, along with several other pond improvements. The project will also replace the park's outdated manual irrigation system with an automated one.

The goal of the rehabilitation is to minimize water usage from the pond, enhance water quality, and improve the service level of the irrigation system by eliminating daytime watering.

Water efficiency is a key focus for the Parks & Recreation department. This initiative marks the fourth partnership project with the Utilities division, and it follows the recent installation of new irrigation systems at three of our four golf courses.

The rehabilitation project includes the following actions:

Excavating to remove sediment from the pond
Deepening the pond, as cooler water is less prone to algae growth
Installing a liner to reduce water loss
Implementing a pond filtration and aeration system
Planting bio-filtration as a natural means of cleaning the pond
Pumping water from the pond to irrigate the park and replacing it with fresh city water daily
Installing a new irrigation system

Location(s)

Cannon Hill Park, Spokane, WA

Timeline and Funding

$1.2M has been secured through a combination of an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant provided by City Council, City Utilities, and Parks funding.
The remaining $550,000 should be secured in 2025, and if so, anticipated groundbreaking would occur in 2026 or 2027.
If voters approve the November 2025 parks levy, all remaining manual irrigation systems would be upgraded with automated across City of Spokane park properties.