[Vision2020] water development

Mark Solomon msolomon at moscow.com
Sat Apr 14 18:24:47 PDT 2007


Donovan,

Maybe you missed the quotation marks around "new water". We can talk 
about water quality but that is a separate issue from water quantity. 
All Moscow water meets Safe Drinking Act quality standards. The water 
derived from the upper aquifer, which now constitutes 30% of the city 
supply (and supplied 100% of the supply from the city's founding 
through 1960) is heavily mineralized with iron and zinc. If your 
water tastes foul however, it is likely not the water itself but 
either iron bacteria that have colonized your plumbing or chlorine 
used to treat the water. Different parts of the city have water that 
has different proportions of upper and deep aquifer waters depending 
on their proximity to different wells, different water 
towers/reservoirs and piping connecting it all. Either one is 
filterable with a low cost/low maintenance filter readily available 
at most local plumbing shops and installable with little to no tools 
depending on how accessible your pipes are.

m.

At 6:13 PM -0700 4/14/07, Donovan Arnold wrote:
>Mark,
>
>Conservation doesn't create new water. It simply conserves what we 
>have. Your suggestions do not A) Supply us with more water or B) 
>Solve the problem of having low quality, foul tasting, 
>smelling water that ruins our clothes and plumbing.
>
>The revenue of clay extraction over the course of 25-100 years would 
>most likely cover the costs of building a water line 50 miles. We 
>have a century or two solve this problem, isn't in crisis mode yet. 
>Let industry develop a little first.
>
>Best,
>
>Donovan
>
>Mark Solomon <msolomon at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>I don't know about Washington, but the Nez Perce Tribe might have
>something significant to say as those are waters covered under their
>settlement with the state. A more probable but still highly unlikely
>source would be the N. Fk of the Palouse above Laird Park. Unlikely
>because of the cost of a pipeline, diversion structure, pump station
>(to get around/over Moscow Mountain.
>
>Conservation is still the cheapest source of "new water". As I've
>discussed here previously, new development could fund conservation
>implementation to offset a development's water demand. Simple
>balancing of the water checkbook.
>
>m.
>
>At 4:43 PM -0700 4/14/07, Sunil Ramalingam wrote:
>>Thanks, Mark.
>>
>>I also wonder that if money were available for such a project,
>>setting aside any environmental concerns, Moscow would be able to
>>appropriate Clearwater River water. Wouldn't Washington users
>>downstream have superior claims that would make such a project
>>difficult?
>>
>>Sunil
>>
>>>From: Mark Solomon
>>>To: Donovan Arnold , Sunil
>>>Ramalingam , vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] water development
>>>Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 16:01:11 -0700
>>>
>>>Sunil is referring to the study done by the Army Corps of Engineers
>>>sometime way back when that looked at the Palouse, Clearwater and
>>>Snake Rivers as possible water sources for Moscow. Even back then
>>>(1974 I think) the energy costs of pumping water uphill to Moscow
>>>were prohibitive. The only person I know who has an actual copy of
>>>the study is Joel Hamilton. There is likely one in the UI library.
>>>
>>>m.
>
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