[Vision2020] So, Is Moscow ready for a reservoir?

Tue Oct 10 12:59:08 PDT 2006

>From today's Daily News. Please note there is a 
significant reporter error in the statement 
attributed to me re the Grande Ronde going dry in 
10-20 years. I specifically referred in my 
presentation to the Wanapum and the time frame I 
forecast was 15-25 years based on historical well 
levels when Moscow relied entirely on the Wanapum 
aquifers. We now pull 30% of total demand from 
the Wanapum, an amount very close to the volume 
pumped in Moscow during the 40's and 50's with 
its then smaller population.

Mark

********

MCA panelists: Moscow reservoir may make sense

Group of five agrees that feasibility study needed before further discussion

By Ryan Bentley, Daily News staff writer
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - Page Updated at 12:07:07 PM

Moscow resident Kit Craine believes elected 
officials must push forward and find a secure 
source of water for the area.

She said people won't seriously push for an 
alternative source of water until they wake up 
one morning and don't have any water to take a 
shower.

Mark Solomon, coordinator of the Latah County 
Hydrogeologic Project and an area water advocate, 
said if people in Moscow wake up with dry pipes, 
it's too late.

Solomon was one of five panelists at a Moscow 
Civic Association forum on an alternate community 
water source Monday night at the 1912 Center.

The panelists agreed at the end of the meeting 
that before anyone started digging a reservoir, a 
feasibility study must be completed and reviewed.

Gary Riedner, Moscow city supervisor, said a way 
to pay for a new reservoir has to be identified. 
State and federal grants need to be sought before 
bonds or rate hikes are floated toward residents.

He said Moscow has $50,000 specifically budgeted 
to identify additional water sources, and that 
money could potentially be used to help pay for a 
feasibility study.

None of the panelists had any firm idea of how much a reservoir would cost.

Jerry Fairley, a University of Idaho assistant 
professor of hydrogeology, said a reservoir must 
be looked at as a long-term investment to keep 
the area alive.

Solomon pointed to Troy as an example. Its water 
supply comes from a reservoir and it is looking 
at expanding its existing supply to meet demand 
and plan for future growth. Troy has pursued 
applications and permits over the last four 
years, and it has started to seriously look at 
payment options in the last year.

Solomon said a reservoir that would meet Moscow's 
needs would have to hold about 300 million 
gallons of water, roughly double the size of 
Spring Valley Reservoir.

Solomon said if something is not done within the 
next 10 to 20 years, Moscow could see water 
levels plummet and wells begin to run dry in the 
Grande Ronde aquifer the same way it witnessed 
levels drop in the Wanupum aquifer in the 1950s 
and '60s.

Steve Robischon, executive manager of the Palouse 
Basin Aquifer Committee, said PBAC is an advisory 
committee and does not have an opinion on the 
matter. He said the idea of building a reservoir 
that would retain runoff isn't new.

The only current source of water for Moscow and 
Pullman is the two aquifer systems. The Wanupum 
is a shallow aquifer, while the Grande Ronde is a 
deep aquifer that provides most of the cities' 
municipal water.

Robischon said groundwater levels have continued 
to fall since the first recording in 1897. The 
reservoir idea has popped up several times since, 
but each time the discussion has died down before 
any serious research was done.

Aside from the obvious problem of how to pay for 
a reservoir, there is the question of where it 
would be located.

Fairley said the most logical place would be 
somewhere on the western slopes of Moscow 
Mountain, where engineers could use the 
granitic-rock base as a type of liner.

Moscow would experience an immediate positive 
impact, and Pullman and other well owners in the 
Palouse Basin would benefit from Moscow pulling 
less water from the aquifer systems.

For a potential reservoir to be successful, the 
panelists agreed that Moscow and Latah County 
have to work with the rest of the region.

Dianne French, board member of the Palouse Water 
Conservation Network, said people must conserve 
in the interim. That doesn't necessarily mean 
turning off the faucet.

She said sincere conservation could cause 
stabilization in the aquifers. As an example, she 
pointed to Seattle, where the city uses the same 
amount of water it did in the 1970s despite the 
fact its population has doubled.

French said simple things like faucet aerators 
and more-complicated systems that use effluent 
water for lawns and gardens can save communities 
millions of gallons a year.

"There are no more water sources in the ground," 
Solomon said. "All that's left is what falls from 
the sky, and we need to figure out a way to keep 
some of that."

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

At 7:35 AM -0700 10/10/06, Joe Campbell wrote:
>It was a wonderful meeting, Nils! I want to 
>thank the panelists: Jerry Fairley, Dianne 
>French, Gary Riedner, Steve Robischon, and Mark 
>Solomon. They all did a wonderful job and I 
>learned a lot!
>
>Hopefully Mark or someone else who attended the 
>meeting can note some of the highlights. Water 
>is not exactly my area of specialization!
>
>--
>Joe Campbell
>
>---- Nils Peterson <nils_peterson at wsu.edu> wrote:
>
>=============
>I was sorry to miss the meeting last night. Of the major agenda items facing
>the city, starting to develop a long range plan for water is about the top
>of my list.
>
>I'd like to hear some of the thinking that got presented. I've heard that
>there might be a candidate location on the Mountain, which was identified a
>few years ago.
>
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