When members of the Mid-Columbia Koi and Pond Club need to relax after a stressful day at work, they head for their ponds.
There's nothing more relaxing than watching the fish swim lazily among the water plants and listening to water cascading over waterfalls and around rocks, said club member Carmen Stafford of Kennewick.
Check it out yourself. Six club members with ponds ranging from small water features with just a few plants and fish to some ponds holding hundreds of gallons and schools of koi and goldfish are opening their backyard gates to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Many of the owners installed their ponds themselves, and each will be on hand to talk about their projects and share advice on ponds, plants and fish.
Here's a peek at what you'll see:
* Kandi Tarr and Chris Cataldo of Kennewick turned an unused area of their yard into what she describes as a "space of pure fish ecstasy."
It's a large pond, roughly 13 by 12 feet and 4 to 5 feet deep with a waterfall. They had to rebuild the backside of the waterfall because of damage from snow and ice but "the sound really calms the noise that comes along with living off of 10th Street," Tarr said.
* Treah and Scott Pierce of Benton City began building their pond in 2008 because they had five goldfish that were outgrowing an aquarium. They began digging, shaping and reshaping, then added a stream, changed it, then removed it only to put it back again. Now they have about a 2,000-gallon pond with a waterfall and a stream with lots of goldfish and three koi.
* Dan Price and Marisol Rodriguez-Price of Richland also built their pond. It has a series of small waterfalls in a stream feeding the pond, which is home to 10 koi and a large number of goldfish. They have enhanced it each year, first with a bridge, then a dock and now a variety of plants.
* Shelia and Bob Veklotz of Kennewick built their pond by hand, shovelful by shovelful, over four years. They brought in rock and built a patio and did the landscaping -- and it's an ongoing project.
* Dick and Pat Mueller of Kennewick have seven ponds. The smallest is just 100 gallons. The largest -- a converted swimming pool -- holds up to 32,000 gallons. The ponds are home to koi, wakins, sarassas, frogs and many water plants.
* Gary and Vannin McNair of Richland located their pond to take advantage of their hillside lot. They dug it themselves and it's about 15 by 30 feet and about 3 feet deep. The McNairs used the rock they unearthed and gathered more from two nearby vacant lots to rim the pond and build a 6-foot waterfall. It's home to about three dozen goldfish, two koi and, on occasion, is visited by ducks, quail and herons, and kingfishers looking for an easy meal.
Tickets are available at:
* Beaver Bark & Rock, 607 Aaron Drive, Richland, 946-1000.
* Heritage Nursery & Garden Center, 2816 W. 27th Ave., Kennewick, 586-0744.
* Koi Joy's Pond Shop 422 E. Columbia Drive, Kennewick, 586-1046.
* Mac's Garden Center 6711 W. Court St., Pasco, 547-8109.
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Officials say the new pact will put to rest a decade of disputes over the
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The water rights from the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Release Program will be noninterruptible, which means that even when a drought is declared, the cities can continue to use that water, said Joye Redfield-Wilder, communication manager for the Department of Ecology in Yakima.
Quad-cities water right pact reached
Quad-cities water right pact reached
State officials and the Tri-Cities and West Richland have reached an agreement on getting Pasco the water it needs now and the water the other cities will need in the future.
Officials say the new pact will put to rest a decade of disputes over the so-called quad-cities water right from the Columbia River.
The water rights from the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Release Program will be noninterruptible, which means that even when a drought is declared, the cities can continue to use that water, said Joye Redfield-Wilder, communication manager for the Department of Ecology in Yakima.
Record amount of contaminated Hanford ground water treated
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Concerns heard at hearing about natural gas pipeline for central Hanford
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About 80 people attended.
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