Proposed Gravity Water System for Wenatchee Valley, Washington

Abstract

The Wenatchee river, one of the major tributaries of the Columbia River, flows through a narrow valley in the lower reaches of its course, joining the Columbia near the City of Wenatchee. This lower valley, some thirty miles in length, contains about 27,000 acres of rich alluvial land, given over almost exclusively to the production of fruit. The fruit orchards average about ten acres in area, with modern homes built on most of the orchards, the result being that the entire valley takes on the nature of a suburban community. The incorporated cities are Leavenworth, with a population of 1500, lying at the head of the valley near the junction of the Icicle creek and the Wenatchee river, Cashmere, near the center, with a population of 1500, and Wenatchee, with a population of 12,000, near the confluence of the Wenatchee river and the Columbia. In addition to the incorporated cities, small business communities have sprung up in the valley at Peshastin, Dryden and Monitor. Surrounding Wenatchee is a thickly settled suburban district. The district known as West Wenatchee and Millerdale, lying to the Southwest, West and North of the city is incorporated into a domestic water district with a population of about 1500 and has its own distribution system and pumping plant. South Wenatchee, where the division shops and yards of the Great Northern Railway are located, lies about one mile South of Wenatchee and has a population of about 800, and East Wenatchee, across the Columbia river in Douglas County, with a population of about 1200, is also incorporated into a water district with its own distribution system and pumping plant.