[Vision2020] Moscow-Pullman Highway going commercial

[Mark Solomon]

Jerry,

Here's the current water situation as I understand it. Bear with me 
as it's a bit convoluted:

Hawkins has entered into an agreement with the Town of Colton in 
which Colton relinquishes its previous arrangement with McKiernan 
Bros (an auto/truck/farm equip repair business north of Pullman on 
the Palouse Highway) in which Colton would have purchased and 
transferred McKiernan's water right to add capacity to their 
municipal system. Hawkins agreed to find other water for Colton to 
replace the McKiernan water. The agreement was to do this in 90 days. 
All this was reported in the Whitman Gazette back in August.

There are two issues here. The first is the "sourcing area" for the 
water. The area around Colton is underlain by a basalt flow that is 
not present in the Moscow/Pullman area (the Saddle Mountain 
formation) and which currently supplies Colton its water. There are 
other flows below the Saddle Mountain flow that are also present in 
the Moscow/Pullman area. So, Hawkins idea is to find other Saddle 
Mountain formation wells that they could acquire the rights to and 
give them to Colton in exchange for the McKiernan Bros well which 
could transfer to their proposed development site.

That's the first hurdle for Hawkins: find the well for Colton to 
replace McKiernan.

However there is another consideration when transferring water rights 
that Hawkins does not seem to have taken into account. As in Idaho, 
Washington has a "use it or lose it" policy regarding water rights. 
In the case of the McKiernan well, it was originally drilled by an 
ag-chem company who likely did use the full 22 acre foot/yr water 
right they were granted. But it's been a long time since that was the 
case. WA regs look back five years when calculating how much water 
has been put to beneficial use for purposes of deciding how much is 
transferrable. I don't know how much a repair shop uses but I'll 
wager its considerably less than 22 acre foot/yr (1 acre foot = 
325,851 gallons).

So, even if Hawkins can find replacement rights for Colton, they will 
only be able to transfer (and I'm guessing here) somewhere between 
1-3 acre foot to their proposed development.

In other words, water is still a huge issue for them.

Mark

At 10:50 PM -0700 10/12/06, Jerry Weitz wrote:
>Dan, a few month ago we contacted the  Hawkins project manager for 
>information over citing a dental office in the development.  We 
>asked a number of questions and received answers.  They are very 
>serious and beleive they can handle the water issue.  Walmart  in 
>not in the running, Lowes is.  Two other majors are committed and 
>wish not to be known publicly at this time.  Do you believe that 
>the development can be stopped?   Jerry At 12:55 PM 10/11/06, Dan 
>Carscallen wrote:
>
>>Anyone else hear that sucking sound from the west?
>>
>>who's next?
>>
>>DC
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>
>>From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com 
>>[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Bill London
>>
>>Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:44 AM
>>
>>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>>
>>Subject: [Vision2020] Moscow-Pullman Highway going commercial
>>
>>
>>According to a legal notice regarding stormwater pollution 
>>prevention in the Daily News (page 9B, Tuesday, Oct. 10), the James 
>>Hill Toyota dealership is moving from Moscow to the Washington side 
>>of the line.
>>
>>The dealership has purchased 13 acres on the Moscow-Pullman 
>>Highway, on the south side of the highway, between the highway and 
>>the creek, about a mile from Moscow.
>>
>>The present plan is to develop 6 acres as the Toyota dealership.
>>
>>There goes the neighborhood.....
>>
>>BL
>>
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