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<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="+1" color="#000000"><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size="+1" color="#000000">For Immediate
Release<br>
All Media<br>
December 14, 2004<br>
<br>
PALOUSE WATER CONSERVATION NETWORK</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="+1"
color="#000000">CONTACT:<x-tab>
</x-tab>MARK SOLOMON<x-tab> </x-tab></font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="+1" color="#000000"><br>
<u><b>Water Coalition asks IDWR to try again<br>
<br>
</b></u>(Moscow)<x-tab> </x-tab>Moscow water conservation
advocates today filed a Petition for Reconsideration of Idaho
Department of Water Resource Director Karl Dreher's December 1
rejection of their request to designate aquifers supplying Moscow with
drinking water as imperiled. Petitioners are Palouse Water
Conservation Network, Friends of the Clearwater, Sierra Club Palouse
Group, and Idaho Conservation League. By law, IDWR must respond within
21 days. Petitioners filed their original request more than one year
ago.<br>
<br>
"We are asking Director Dreher to reconsider whether a slight
change in the rate of decline in the water level of one well out of
eleven justifies his determination that stabilization of the aquifer
is taking place," said Mark Solomon, spokesman for the
petitioners. "All indications are Moscow has only 10-15 years to
solve its water supply problem before wells start to run dry. We once
again ask Director Dreher to help Moscow address this vital issue
today while time is still on our side, not when crisis hits."<br>
<br>
The petitioners are also critical of the part of the Director's Order
creating yet another advisory group with no authority to implement any
actions. The Citizen Advisory Group would be advisory to the Palouse
Basin Aquifer Committee, itself an advisory group with no powers other
than to coordinate research of the Palouse aquifers. As the petition
states, "Creating an advisory committee to an advisory committee
that has demonstrated its inability to see its recommendations
implemented is a triumph of redundant failure."<br>
<br>
The entire petition may be viewed at:<x-tab>
</x-tab><u>http://www.pwcn.org<br>
<br>
Background:<br>
</u>Idaho Code 42-233A provides authority to the Idaho Department of
Water Resources (IDWR) to designate and manage groundwater withdrawals
for aquifers that are being depleted. It is a well-researched fact
that the deep Grande Ronde aquifer, providing the majority of the City
of Moscow's and the University's water supply, is declining one to two
feet per year. There is no known recharge of this 10,000 year-old
water source. The University and the City also utilize the upper
Wanapum aquifer that does annually recharge, but has a known capacity
that is estimated will be exceeded within fifteen years. The Wanapum
currently provides 30% of Moscow's water supply. To manage the
acknowledged over-consumption of groundwater in the Palouse sub-basin,
the University, the cities of Moscow and Pullman and Washington State
University entered into an intergovernmental agreement in 1987 now
known as the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee. Efforts of PBAC to
reduce decline in the Grande Ronde aquifer have not resulted in any
measurable success.<br>
<br>
On November 20, 2003, a coalition of Moscow civic and environmental
groups petitioned IDWR to designate the Grande Ronde aquifer
underlying the Moscow area as a Critical Groundwater Management Area
and the Wanapum aquifer in the same area as a Groundwater Management
Area.<br>
<br>
For more information go to: http://www.pwcn.org<br>
-30-</font></div>
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