CITY OF LEAVENWORTH
Water System Planning and Improvements 

Varela client since 1987

The city’s challenges
Leavenworth wasn’t always “Your Bavarian Getaway.” In fact, the former railroad town was on the brink of extinction until its Alpine rebirth in the 1960s. Today, as many as 60,000 people visit on festival weekends. But Leavenworth’s water system was never meant to support that kind of demand. The formidable financial burden of solving this threatened the community’s economic vitality. Varela helped the City of Leavenworth meet these challenges:

• water supply (and water rights) that couldn’t keep up with growing demands
• water treatment system that was having difficulty meeting new standards
• 80-year-old water reservoir that was deteriorating and seismically at risk
• limited financial ability to make the major system improvements needed

How we helped
We went to work to provide the tools the city needed to make effective decisions:

• comprehensive plan for system improvements and a plan for affordable funding
• grant/loan funding acquisition
• project planning, management, design, and construction inspection(multiple projects)

What the city accomplished
We are proud to have contributed to major water system upgrades that have allowed the City of Leavenworth to support its remarkable growth, vitality, and economic health – both now and into the future. Since 1990 we’ve helped the city accomplish over $5 million in water system improvements with grant and low interest loans:

• two new reservoirs
• water treatment plant improvements and treatment optimization
• three new wells and two new pumping stations
• 12" and 24" transmission pipelines
• service area metering (1000 meter installations)
• water system plans (1988, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010)
• water rates and connection charges
• development standards and policies