[Vision2020] The (New) Troy Reservoir

[Steven Basoa]

Kudos to the Troy founders for their foresight and to the current  
Troy officials for their planning.  The following article (from the  
Moscow-Pullman Daily news) details how the town of Troy may go about  
dealing with their water issues.   The potential for building a  
reservoir for Moscow has been mentioned (on v2020) several times.  I  
do not know if the city officials are even considering this idea.   
Considering the uncertainty of our aquifers, the time for studying  
this option is long past due.  The city wouldn't even have to hire  
outside consultants.  We have an excellent Geological Sciences  
department at the UI.  One would think/hope that the city and the  
university would be eager to work together on such a project.  The  
potential benefits could be enormous.  It would be sad times for  
Moscow should the wells ever run dry.

*******

TACKLING THE WATER ISSUE

Troy community leaders express need for new reservoir

By Ryan Bentley, Daily News staff writer
Published: 08-07-2006

Officials in Troy want to pursue a reservoir that would provide the  
town with twice the amount of water it needs.

Troy is in the preliminary stages of building a 250-million to 300- 
million-gallon reservoir downstream from its existing 8-million- 
gallon reservoir.

The town collects about 80 percent of its water from the surface and  
only uses its two wells during the summer months.

The area flooded to house the reservoir would be land the town  
already owns and property owned by the University of Idaho.

Troy’s founders decided more than 120 years ago to buy a large  
portion of the drainage that supplies the town with its water.

Their foresight may provide the town with the water it needs for  
years to come.

“Right now, Troy is restricted and can’t really grow because we just  
don’t have enough water,” Mayor Ken Whitney Jr. said. “We believe  
this is the best option for a sustainable, more plentiful water  
supply, but we need the town to sign off on it.”

The new system’s projected cost is approximately $3.5 million. The  
city currently has about $1 million saved from select logging on its  
drainage area. Water rates would increase to between $10 and $15,  
although Whitney said all of the cost analyses and data are rough.

The city has been looking at potential reservoir sites since 1993,  
Whitney said. The City Council and forester Cliff Todd will explain  
the need for a new reservoir at an Aug. 28 meeting at the Troy Lions  
Club. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

“We need people to be at this meeting,” Whitney said. “They are the  
ones that have to decide if they really want us to pursue this route.”

The city could drill more wells for about $100,000 apiece, Whitney  
said, but Troy is located over an aquifer that does not have enough  
water to continually supply the town.

Todd said studies done on the aquifer show it is not part of the  
Grand Ronde Aquifer that supplies water to Moscow and Pullman. The  
aquifer under Troy stops before it reaches Moscow, he said. Wells  
drilled into the aquifer below Troy pull no more than 150 gallons a  
minute, while some wells in the Grand Ronde Aquifer pump more than  
2,000 gallons a minute.

“At 300 million gallons that would be enough to supply Troy with  
enough water for two years if it had 1,500 people living in it,” Todd  
said. “The reservoir makes the most sense because of the topography,  
the creek and the amount of water we can get.”

The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed Troy’s current reservoir  
in the 1930s. The town didn’t start using groundwater until the 1970s.

Whitney said the existing reservoir was nothing more than a muddy  
hole last summer, and the wells were running dry.

“We were hurting,” he said. “If we get a new reservoir we would have  
water in reserve for when we have those dry years and not have to  
worry every summer and not have to ration.”

Whitney said formulas he has seen allocate 100 million gallons of  
water a year for 800 people, which is the population of Troy. With  
its current reservoir, the town can only draw 60 million gallons a year.

“Several contractors have come to us wanting to build, but we just  
don’t have the water,” he said. “This will be the foundation in  
Troy’s growth.”

The town already has water rights to the drainage area, but it needs  
a permit to move the holding area down Big Meadow Creek.

Latah County gave the city a conditional use permit for the  
reservoir. Now, the citizens must approve the plan and pass the bond  
that would pay for the reservoir. The city must hire an engineer to  
plan the dam, and the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the  
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have to approve the plan.

Todd said one of the contingencies the city faces is making  
accommodations for salmon, steelhead and wetlands. Todd said those  
shouldn’t be a problem if the city dumps water into the creek during  
the summer to accommodate salmon and steelhead and creates new  
wetlands to compensate for the creek.

Besides providing for fish, Todd said IDWR wants Troy to dump extra  
water into the creek during the summer to accommodate the city of  
Juliaetta’s needs. Todd said water for fish and people downstream  
would be possible. Even if Troy’s population doubled, planners still  
project an extra 150 million gallons.

Todd does not foresee running a line to Moscow if the Grand Ronde  
Aquifer dries up, but pumping water to accommodate for people  
downstream is realistic.

“This is the most important issue for Troy,” Whitney said. “We are  
trying to look far into the future so our kids and grandkids can have  
enough water.”

IF YOU GO

* WHAT: Town meeting to hear from the public on whether the city  
should pursue a reservoir.

* WHEN: Troy Lions Club

* WHERE: Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.

Ryan Bentley can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 237, or by e-mail  
at rbentley at dnews.com. 
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