[Vision2020] Emergency ordinance information

[Donovan Arnold]

Mr. Storhok and Mr. Solomon,

For those of us that do not follow the water issue but
are also concerned.

Can you answer the following questions, in 100 words
or less?

How much water does Moscow have?

How much will the city need in the next 20, 40, 100,
200 years based on a normal population growth rate?

What is in our water(chemicals, organisms, etc.)?

Will the quality (how many impurities it has in it) of
water decline over time or increase?

If you do not know, please say so as well.

Thanks,

Donovan J Arnold


--- Chris Storhok <cstorhok at co.fairbanks.ak.us> wrote:

> Mark,
> Thank you for bringing up the research; a lot of you
> discuss below is true,
> however as you well are aware the aquifer system
> under this area is not a
> classic saucer that forms basically one large
> subterranean "lake".  You
> mention below the visible ridges such as Moscow
> Mountain, Buffalo Hump, and
> Paradise Ridge, it has been shown that there may be
> several ridges buried
> beneath the surface that divide the basins into many
> sub-basins.  The net
> effect of this division is that instead of a classic
> layer cake, your cake
> has intrusions everywhere that separate each system.
>  North of town (in the
> area of the Naylor Farms) there is evidence that
> this area is not over a
> 20,000 static pool of Grande Rhonde aquifer but
> instead over a ancient large
> river channel that serves to guide a tremendous
> amount of subsurface water
> northwest toward Colfax.  This water cannot recharge
> the  portions of the
> Grande Rhonde that serves both Moscow and Pullman
> because it cannot reach
> that "pool" due to a probable ridge.  Several
> residential wells in this
> vicinity as well as the drilling results from the
> Naylor's show over and
> over again that this region is unique from Moscow. 
> For this reason I really
> do support the Naylor's connectivity testing as laid
> out in the protocol.
> If Naylor is wrong and there really is a connected
> "pool", you know as well
> as I do they must abandon their efforts and cap the
> well.  If Naylor is
> right, then there is a new source of water for
> Moscow that can be tapped.  
> One nice little piece of scientific evidence that
> you keep flashing before
> is the "age" of the water.  I have never believed
> that the age is right
> since the water must percolate through sediments
> carrying 15,000 to 20,000
> year old carbon sources (and hence pick up the
> carbon 14 signature used to
> determine the waters age).  I would imagine you have
> brewed many a pot of
> coffee, the effect is the same - if I had a source
> of 20,000 year old coffee
> beans and brewed a cup I could tell you right now
> the isotopic signature of
> that cup would be 20,000 years old.
> 
> On too mining...As you stated below, there are
> several layers of clays,
> sand, gravel, and so forth that separate the Wanapum
> and Grande Rhonde
> aquifer preventing water from passing down.  The
> same is true below the
> Canfield-Roger deposit. Below the commercially
> valuable clays there are up
> to hundreds of feet of non-commercially valuable
> clays, silts and so forth
> that prevent water from seeping down.  As many of
> your referenced papers in
> a later email points out, the Wanapum aquifer is
> mostly recharged near the
> base of Moscow Mountain, Buffalo Hump and Paradise
> Ridge.  Mining can (and
> has) taken place on this deposit without affecting
> the aquifer, I am sure it
> can again.  
> One other side note, you mentioned possible
> contamination of each aquifer,
> would not the proposed idea of injecting surface
> water into the aquifer
> carry the same (or greater) risk?
> 
> I really hope that the city and the county take a
> look at plans that date
> back to the 1930's for construction of a series of
> small reservoirs that
> could hold runoff.  The city could run water lines
> to these reservoirs into
> a treatment plant and then into the drinking water
> system.
> 
> I do want to bring up one more point, as someone who
> lived for years north
> of town and had a private well (i.e. I had to pay
> for the electricity to
> pump all the water I consumed) I learned that
> through proper lawn watering a
> person could maintain a somewhat green yard without
> using much water - if
> you balance it right you won't have to mow after
> mid-June.
> 
> I do agree with you Mark, this is a very important
> issue for Moscow, I just
> have issues with the approach of prohibit this and
> prohibit that.  The
> conditional use permit system, its hearings, public
> comment and so forth
> really does work; I just wish that people could
> trust elected officials and
> boards to ensure the process does work.
> 
> Have a great weekend
> 
> Chris
> 
> Chris Storhok
> North Pole, AK  
>  
> 
> 
> 
>      
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Solomon [mailto:msolomon at moscow.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 7:13 AM
> To: Chris Storhok; 'vision2020 at moscow.com'
> Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Emergency ordinance
> information
> 
> 
> Chris:
> 
> Let's take it from the top, geologically and 
> hydrogeologically speaking. Research studies 
> reported in Soil Sciences and Geoderma (two 
> leading scientific journals in the soils 
> discipline) conclude that recharge to groundwater 
> on the Moscow Sub-Basin is for all intents and 
> purposes not happening via precipitation falling 
> on the loess soils (O'Geen, 2003, 2005). 58% of 
> the Moscow Sub-basin is composed of layered 
> sediments identified as the Latah Formation (Bush 
> and Pierce 1998). These sediments generally lie 
> between the granitic uplands of Moscow Mountain, 
> Buffalo Hump and Paradise Ridge. They were formed 
> over time as successive Columbia River Flood 
> Basalts flooded in from the west temporarily 
> damming the natural stream flows rising from the 
> granitic margins. Those streams deposited 
> granitic sands and gravels eroded from the 
> uplands. Eventually, the streams would find an 
> exit from the dammed area and a stream channel 
> would define itself. Soils and clays would then 
> form on the new land to each side of the stream 
> channels. Then, the basalts would flood in again 
> and the whole process would repeat. The older 
> Grande Ronde Formation is composed of four such 
> flows, itself sitting on to of even older flows. 
> The more recent Wanapum Formation is composed of 
> two flows. (I'll send anyone that wants the pages 
> of references that boil down to this paragraph).
> 
> That's a lot of layers in the cake. Generally, 
> the paleostream sands and gravels are where water 
> is found. They are also the most likely pathway 
> for water to enter the basalt formations that 
> provide the vast majority of water upon which the 
> people, community and economy of the Moscow area 
> rely. The deep Grande Ronde aquifer waters are 
> age dated at 10,000 to 25,000 years old 
> indicating little to no recharge through the 
> sediments. There is a virtually impermeable layer 
> of clay between the Wanapum and Grande Ronde 
> Formations that prevents water vertically moving 
> between the two. The result is an almost 
> continuous decline in static water levels in 
> Grande Ronde wells.
> 
> We know from City of Moscow well records that the 
> Wanapum basalts do recharge over time. Pre-1960, 
> Moscow drew all its water from the Wanapum, 
> resulting in a precipitous decline in water 
> levels by the time the first Grande Ronde wells 
> were drilled in an effort to take the pressure 
> off the Wanapum. It worked... for a while. Water 
> levels "rebounded" over the next 30 years. Then 
> the City outgrew its Grande Ronde supply and 
> resumed Wanapum pumping. Wanapum levels are on 
> their downward slide again. Assuming the current 
> PBAC agreements to hold Grande Ronde pumping 
> level in an attempt to stabilize water levels is 
> maintained, all increased Moscow water demand 
> will necessarily be supplied from the Wanapum.
> 
> Recap: 23,000 people in the Moscow Sub-basin rely 
> exclusively on groundwater for their water 
> supply. The Grande Ronde aquifer shows no known 
> recharge and is steadily declining. The Wanapum 
> aquifer does recharge and likely receives the 
> 
=== message truncated ===


	
		
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