The City of Roy’s long-awaited water improvement project remains on hold as the Roy Public Works Department is waiting for Pierce County to respond to requests for third-party water testing.
Ryan Fuller, Roy Public Works director, told the City Council during its Monday, Jan. 13, meeting that the department is hoping the county would confirm a recent annual water quality test by the Washington state Department of Health (DOH) of Well No. 2, which was contaminated with iron and manganese.
Fuller said in November that the DOH required an additional three-month testing period for the well after the most recent test results showed that the iron and manganese levels were nearly non-detectable, a drastic shift from previous findings.
Fuller came back before the council in January and said the city had been in communication with Pierce County but that a change in leadership has stalled progress.
“We are still working with Pierce County to get them out here. There was a slight delay in communication because Jennifer Tetatzin, who was Pierce County’s public works director at the time, has now moved on,” Fuller said. “Once the new gentleman, Ryan Mello, took over, the communication has kind of gone silent. We are still trying to communicate with them to get a date set for them to come out here. There was approval for them to come do it. It’s just getting a date from them.”
Patrick Skillings, executive vice president of the city’s engineering firm Skillings, added that the firm and the Roy Public Works Department are waiting to determine with the DOH what the best action plan is going forward for the water infrastructure improvements.
“We have consulted with the DOH, and they have requested additional testing to make sure that there is a need so that you’re not doing something that’s not required just because of an off test or something like that,” Skillings said. “We’re waiting for the test to be completed.”
Skillings requested that the council vote to authorize the firm to conduct siting and design work for a new reservoir, which includes a seismic evaluation. The cost for the design and siting is $336,000, which will be covered by grants. The council approved the request unanimously.
However, Beth King, Roy’s acting city clerk-treasurer, informed the council that the $70,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that it previously allocated for water infrastructure improvements cannot be used as a savings account. Instead, the money was used for staff wages and can be used for contracted work related to the water projects.
“Had I not done that, we would have lost that. They would have pulled that back. The money cannot be used as a savings account, so that money is being redirected to things that are needed for the water side that we’re figuring out,” King said. “They had to be contracted or for payroll.”
