Ferndale just started pumping from its new well. Did residents taste the difference?
Ferndale started pumping about a month ago from its new well, one that’s deeper and that officials hope is producing a tastier glass of water.
“It’s working just as anticipated,” city spokesman Riley Sweeney said in an interview.
“I believe that it has gone unnoticed,” which is good news, Sweeney said.
Sweeney said the new well is called “Shop Well 2,” because it’s near the Public Works Department shop on Legoe Avenue.
It taps a new aquifer, about 1,000 feet down.
Ferndale residents and those nearby who use the city’s water, sewer and storm drain system began paying about $30 a month more this year to fund three public-works projects — the new well, an expansion of the city’s drinking water treatment plant, and a “substantial expansion” of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Sweeney said.
He said the new well cost about $1 million, the water-treatment plant expansion is costing about $3 million, and the wastewater treatment plant will cost about $26 million.
Ferndale’s new well and the drinking water and water-treatment projects will give Ferndale, with 15,468 residents according to 2020 census figures, enough water and sewer capacity for 20 to 40 years of growth, Sweeney said.
“Ferndale is the fastest-growing city north of Everett,” he said. “This provides the water we need to grow well into the future.”
Sweeney said improvements at the drinking water plant will be finished at the end of 2021, and will include a full reverse-osmosis process.
He said that could make Ferndale’s water taste as good as it did before the city stopped drawing water from the Nooksack River in 2012.
“Going to the reverse osmosis process will make the water slightly softer,” he said. “It’s the same water-treatment technology that’s used in bottled water now.”
The city locating the area for Ferndale’s growth comparison was corrected July 8, 2020.
This story was originally published July 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
