[Vision2020] Re: Fw: Misinformation from City of Moscow
bill london
london@moscow.com
Wed, 17 Dec 2003 08:25:08 -0800
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Bill-
You and Dianne have spent hundreds of volunteer hours in this effort to
preserve our aquifer and raise awarness of local water mining. Please
know that many people in this community are deeply appreciative of your
work on our behalf. This latest posting, explaining the oh-so-clever
method used by the city to disguise its over-consumption, is especially
impressive. Thank you.
BL
Bill French wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bill French <mailto:prairiedoc@moscow.com>
> To: lmacdonald@ci.moscow.id.us <mailto:lmacdonald@ci.moscow.id.us> ;
> Gary Riedner <mailto:griedner@moscow.com> ; Tom Scallorn
> <mailto:tscallorn@ci.moscow.id.us> ; Marshall Comstock
> <mailto:comstock@moscow.com> ; Steve Busch <mailto:steveb@moscow.com>
> ; Mike Thomason <mailto:mthomason@avistacorp.com> ; Peg Hamlett
> <mailto:peg_hamlett@sbcglobal.net> ; Jack Hill
> <mailto:jmhill@moscow.com> ; JoAnn Mack <mailto:jmack@turbonet.com> ;
> Jon Kimberling <mailto:jon@n-k-ins.com> ; Linda Pall
> <mailto:lpall@moscow.com> ; John Dickinson
> <mailto:johndickinson@moscow.com> ; Nancy Chaney
> <mailto:nchaney@moscow.com> ; bocc@latah.id.us
> <mailto:bocc@latah.id.us> ; staff@moscowchamber.com
> <mailto:staff@moscowchamber.com> ; Larry Kirkland
> <mailto:7kirsch7@msn.com> ; editor@dnews.com <mailto:editor@dnews.com>
> ; city@lmtribune.com <mailto:city@lmtribune.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 4:53 PM
> Subject: Misinformation from City of Moscow
>
> December 16, 2003
>
> To Whom it May Concern (which should be everybody):
>
> On November 24, 2003, the Moscow City Council held an informational
> workshop involving Karl Dreher, Director of IDWR. The advertised
> purpose of that meeting was to explore the facts surrounding potential
> state designations of critical groundwater and/or groundwater
> management areas with regard to Palouse basin aquifers. Public Works
> Director Les MacDonald opened the meeting with a series of graphs
> depicting water use in Moscow. Several of those graphs showed Moscow's
> withdrawals actually decreasing from 1993 to 2002. That was very
> surprising to those of us who have been here and watched Moscow's
> pumping follow a generally increasing trend. The same graphs were
> presented at the December 15 joint workshop/hearing with the Moscow
> City Council and the Latah County Commissioners.
>
> I now realize the reason behind the surprising data presented by Les
> MacDonald. The city of Moscow is actually using two sets of data,
> depending on which puts Moscow water consumption in the better light.
> The differing data sets result from an adjustment that was made in
> 1999, as explained on page 13 of the 1999 Annual Report of the Palouse
> Basin Aquifer Committee:
>
> Moscow's annual pumpage figures were adjusted in 1999 because it was
> discovered that the meters for Well Nos. 2 and 8 were reading high by
> 22 percent and 14 percent, respectively. It is not known how long the
> meters have been miscalibrated; however because they had never been
> calibrated previously, it was assumed that reported quantities of
> water pumped have been high since at least 1986, the first year after
> the base period. Annual pumpage quantities from 1986 to 1999 were
> adjusted down by the percentage pumped by both wells for each year.
>
> Moscow used the reduced pumpage figures for its reports to PBAC in an
> attempt to make its consumption levels more palatable. However, for
> the purposes of Les MacDonald's presentation, Moscow was attempting to
> paint a picture of gradually reducing consumption from 1993 to 2002.
> This purpose was best served by using the original, higher numbers for
> 1986-1999, and these are the numbers that were used.
>
> Substituting the adjusted figures in Les MacDonald's graphs paints the
> picture of dramatically increasing levels of consumption for Moscow
> that reflect reality. For example, when I plotted the "actual" data on
> MacDonald's "ANNUAL DATA 1994-2002" graph, the new best-fit "trend
> line" is steeply increasing, not slightly decreasing (like MacDonald's
> original line). If you'd like a copy of the revised graph, contact me
> or stop by my office. My recommendation to the city is that ALL of the
> graphs should be re-done by Les MacDonald, using the adjusted numbers
> that were reported to PBAC, and distributed to all concerned parties
> (Moscow City Council, Latah County Commissioners, news agencies, IDWR,
> Chamber of Commerce, etc.) This should be done prior to any decisions
> by IDWR, Moscow City Council, Latah County Commissioners, etc.
>
> One additional data point that can now be plotted on these graphs is
> Moscow's all-time record pumping for 2003 of 919 million gallons. This
> number is based on actual pumping figures through November, plus an
> estimate for December (which is based on a slight decrease in pumping
> in December, compared to November, for the last two years). This is a
> dramatic increase over the previous three years - and in a year when
> the Moscow City Council enacted "voluntary watering restrictions" . .
> . "with a gun to their heads." Go figure! (Apparently Moscow can't).
>
> As a side note, Moscow has a long history of blaming its
> overconsumption on faulty water meters. As stated above, 12 years of
> data were altered in 1999. More recently, claims are being made that
> mineral deposits are causing "over registration" in the meters
> recording Moscow's pumping volumes. At the same time, "under
> registration" in residential meters is being targeted as a cause for
> Moscow's alarmingly high level of unaccounted-for water. If the City
> of Moscow put as much effort into coming up with solutions as they put
> into coming up with excuses, our problems might have been solved by now.
>
> Bill French
>
> 883-3937
>
> prairiedoc@moscow.com
>
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Bill-<br>
You and Dianne have spent hundreds of volunteer hours in this effort to
preserve our aquifer and raise awarness of local water mining. Please
know that many people in this community are deeply appreciative of your
work on our behalf. This latest posting, explaining the oh-so-clever
method used by the city to disguise its over-consumption, is especially
impressive. Thank you.<br>
BL<br>
<br>
Bill French wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid005601c3c439$2b93eac0$6401a8c0@Dianne">
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<div
style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size-adjust: none;">-----
Original Message -----
<div
style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial;"><b>From:</b>
<a title="prairiedoc@moscow.com" href="mailto:prairiedoc@moscow.com">Bill
French</a> </div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a title="lmacdonald@ci.moscow.id.us"
href="mailto:lmacdonald@ci.moscow.id.us">lmacdonald@ci.moscow.id.us</a>
; <a title="griedner@moscow.com" href="mailto:griedner@moscow.com">Gary
Riedner</a> ; <a title="tscallorn@ci.moscow.id.us"
href="mailto:tscallorn@ci.moscow.id.us">Tom Scallorn</a> ; <a
title="comstock@moscow.com" href="mailto:comstock@moscow.com">Marshall
Comstock</a> ; <a title="steveb@moscow.com"
href="mailto:steveb@moscow.com">Steve Busch</a> ; <a
title="mthomason@avistacorp.com" href="mailto:mthomason@avistacorp.com">Mike
Thomason</a> ; <a title="peg_hamlett@sbcglobal.net"
href="mailto:peg_hamlett@sbcglobal.net">Peg Hamlett</a> ; <a
title="jmhill@moscow.com" href="mailto:jmhill@moscow.com">Jack Hill</a>
; <a title="jmack@turbonet.com" href="mailto:jmack@turbonet.com">JoAnn
Mack</a> ; <a title="jon@n-k-ins.com" href="mailto:jon@n-k-ins.com">Jon
Kimberling</a> ; <a title="lpall@moscow.com"
href="mailto:lpall@moscow.com">Linda Pall</a> ; <a
title="johndickinson@moscow.com" href="mailto:johndickinson@moscow.com">John
Dickinson</a> ; <a title="nchaney@moscow.com"
href="mailto:nchaney@moscow.com">Nancy Chaney</a> ; <a
title="bocc@latah.id.us" href="mailto:bocc@latah.id.us">bocc@latah.id.us</a>
; <a title="staff@moscowchamber.com"
href="mailto:staff@moscowchamber.com">staff@moscowchamber.com</a> ; <a
title="7kirsch7@msn.com" href="mailto:7kirsch7@msn.com">Larry Kirkland</a>
; <a title="editor@dnews.com" href="mailto:editor@dnews.com">editor@dnews.com</a>
; <a title="city@lmtribune.com" href="mailto:city@lmtribune.com">city@lmtribune.com</a>
</div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, December 16, 2003 4:53 PM</div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> Misinformation from City of Moscow</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font size="2"><font size="3">
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">December 16, 2003</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">To Whom it May Concern (which
should be everybody):</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">On November 24, 2003, the Moscow
City Council held an informational workshop involving Karl Dreher,
Director of IDWR. The advertised purpose of that meeting was to explore
the facts surrounding potential state designations of critical
groundwater and/or groundwater management areas with regard to Palouse
basin aquifers. Public Works Director Les MacDonald opened the meeting
with a series of graphs depicting water use in Moscow. Several of those
graphs showed Moscow’s withdrawals actually decreasing from 1993 to
2002. That was very surprising to those of us who have been here and
watched Moscow’s pumping follow a generally increasing trend. The same
graphs were presented at the December 15 joint workshop/hearing with
the Moscow City Council and the Latah County Commissioners.</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">I now realize the reason behind the
surprising data presented by Les MacDonald. The city of Moscow is
actually using two sets of data, depending on which puts Moscow water
consumption in the better light. The differing data sets result from an
adjustment that was made in 1999, as explained on page 13 of the 1999
Annual Report of the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee:</font></p>
<dir>
<dir>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Moscow’s annual pumpage figures
were adjusted in 1999 because it was discovered that the meters for
Well Nos. 2 and 8 were reading high by 22 percent and 14 percent,
respectively. It is not known how long the meters have been
miscalibrated; however because they had never been calibrated
previously, it was assumed that reported quantities of water pumped
have been high since at least 1986, the first year after the base
period. Annual pumpage quantities from 1986 to 1999 were adjusted down
by the percentage pumped by both wells for each year. </font></p>
</dir>
</dir>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Moscow used the reduced pumpage
figures for its reports to PBAC in an attempt to make its consumption
levels more palatable. However, for the purposes of Les MacDonald’s
presentation, Moscow was attempting to paint a picture of gradually <i>reducing</i>
consumption from 1993 to 2002. This purpose was best served by using
the original, higher numbers for 1986-1999, and these are the numbers
that were used. </font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Substituting the adjusted figures
in Les MacDonald’s graphs paints the picture of dramatically <i>increasing</i>
levels of consumption for Moscow that reflect reality. For example,
when I plotted the "actual" data on MacDonald’s "ANNUAL DATA 1994-2002"
graph, the new best-fit "trend line" is steeply increasing, not
slightly decreasing (like MacDonald’s original line). If you’d like a
copy of the revised graph, contact me or stop by my office. My
recommendation to the city is that ALL of the graphs should be re-done
by Les MacDonald, using the adjusted numbers that were reported to
PBAC, and distributed to all concerned parties (Moscow City Council,
Latah County Commissioners, news agencies, IDWR, Chamber of Commerce,
etc.) This should be done <i>prior</i> to any decisions by IDWR,
Moscow City Council, Latah County Commissioners, etc.</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">One additional data point that can
now be plotted on these graphs is Moscow’s all-time record pumping for
2003 of 919 million gallons. This number is based on actual pumping
figures through November, plus an estimate for December (which is based
on a slight decrease in pumping in December, compared to November, for
the last two years). This is a dramatic increase over the previous
three years – and in a year when the Moscow City Council enacted
"voluntary watering restrictions" . . . "with a gun to their heads." Go
figure! (Apparently Moscow can’t).</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">As a side note, Moscow has a long
history of blaming its overconsumption on faulty water meters. As
stated above, 12 years of data were altered in 1999. More recently,
claims are being made that mineral deposits are causing "over
registration" in the meters recording Moscow’s pumping volumes. At the
same time, "under registration" in residential meters is being targeted
as a cause for Moscow’s alarmingly high level of unaccounted-for water.
If the City of Moscow put as much effort into coming up with
solutions as they put into coming up with excuses, our problems might
have been solved by now.</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Bill French</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">883-3937</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:prairiedoc@moscow.com">prairiedoc@moscow.com</a></font></p>
</font></font></div>
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