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Opportunity for growth has opened for the town of Nespelem with an upgraded water system now up and running. 

Mayor Darcy Epperson explained to The Star over the phone on Tuesday that the town actually has two water systems, and needed to repair one of them. 

"We did two because if our one goes down, we are without [water] and our town has no way to get that water to our customers. So that's why it was such an emergent situation. We have them both up and running now." 

"The town had been in this situation for so long that we had to place a moratorium to not allow any new hookups," Epperson said, adding that they weren't able to offer people outside of the town limits to be put on the town's water system either. 

"Basically," Epperson continued, "for our town to move forward with any development, or even little things like updating our park, getting people to build here, or put a business here, this had to be done. ... The new pump means we can drop the moratorium for new development."

A new ballfield is in the works, made possible by the upgraded water system, Epperson said. If built, it will include fresh sod, backstops, a fence, and dugouts. The current ballfield is just a field of dry grass.

Repairs to the water system included upgrading the pump, plumbing tree and electrical panel. 

The roughly $75,000 water system project was paid for with $50,000 from the Colville Tribes, and around $25,000 in cash contributions from IHS, which also provided engineering services for the project, according to Matthew Pleasants, grant development specialist for the Colville Tribes' Planning Department.

A ceremony held on Dec. 23 at the Nespelem's pump house was attended by Colville Tribal Chairman Rodney Cawston, Colleen Cawston from the IHS Nespelem Service Unit, and Colville Business Council members, among others.