Updating city water system comes with expensive price tag

For more than eight years, the City of Ritzville has known it needs to make major improvements to its water system. Its prime wells that provide water to citizens and businesses continue to falter and its water mains are aging and leaking underground, losing their precious content.

Next year, $5.5 million in water system improvements will occur.

More than a year ago the city council acknowledged it must move forward with significant upgrades to the system to ensure water is delivered for domestic use and fire protection. Breakdowns and temporary failures of the city’s No. 8 well, the main wate...