[Vision2020] The (New) Troy Reservoir

Fri Aug 11 09:47:55 PDT 2006

What about exploring the same funding sources used by Troy and Deary?

Jerry Weitz <gweitz at moscow.com> wrote:  Steve's views are correct.  Moscow bantered this idea around in 1938 when a new well was drilled somewhere east of town came up dry and nothing happened.     I think that the time has come to take action and encourage the building of a reservoir.  The question will be how to pay.  Any ideas? jerry

At 12:10 PM 8/9/06, Steven Basoa wrote:
  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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