Funding will get affected households hooked up to sewer system in urban growth area near Centralia High School
The Bob Oke Game Farm, operated by WDFW, is pictured from above off of Mt. Vista Road in Centralia on Tuesday, April 8. Concerned residents and officials have called for the relocation of the farm’s pheasants due to high nitrate levels found in nearby residents water.
Posted Friday, May 2, 2025 4:47 pm
By Dylan Reubenking / dylanr@chronline.com
As part of the more than $81 million in investments across the 20th Legislative District in the 2025-27 Washington state capital budget, the Legislature approved $5 million for the City of Centralia’s nitrates project to improve drinking water safety.
The capital budget awaits approval by Gov. Bob Ferguson after clearing the House and the Senate.
State Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, included the $5 million in the capital budget as he worked with the City of Centralia to discuss a plan to address dangerously high nitrate levels in a city aquifer impacting about 70 homes in the Fords Prairie area surrounding Centralia High School.
Local officials, citing early testing of the water, believe the source of the high nitrates to be the Bok Oke Game Farm, which is managed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as a site for raising pheasants.
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Abbarno told The Chronicle that he and Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, have had several meetings with the WDFW since the March 24 town hall to discuss different locations around the state.
“Those discussions have been fruitful and moving forward, obviously never fast enough for our citizens who have contaminated water,” Abbarno said. “But I feel like it’s moving in a direction, and hopefully we can get some resolution this summer and we can start working on a plan for that game site. If they ultimately decide they’re going to do a land swap, they’re going to move or they’re going to try to do some mitigating factors on site, that would be in next year’s supplemental capital budget, and we’ll be working with them on that as well.”
