<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: [Vision2020] The (New) Troy
Reservoir</title></head><body>
<div>I've taken city staff and others on several mountain tours over
the past year highlighting reservoir potential.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Mark</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>At 9:16 AM -0700 8/11/06, Jerry Weitz wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>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<br>
<br>
<br>
At 12:10 PM 8/9/06, Steven Basoa wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>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.<br>
<br>
*******<br>
<br>
TACKLING THE WATER ISSUE<br>
<br>
Troy community leaders express need for new reservoir<br>
<br>
By Ryan Bentley, Daily News staff writer<br>
Published: 08-07-2006<br>
<br>
Officials in Troy want to pursue a reservoir that would provide the
town with twice the amount of water it needs.<br>
<br>
Troy is in the preliminary stages of building a 250-million to
300-million-gallon reservoir downstream from its existing
8-million-gallon reservoir.<br>
<br>
The town collects about 80 percent of its water from the surface and
only uses its two wells during the summer months.<br>
<br>
The area flooded to house the reservoir would be land the town already
owns and property owned by the University of Idaho.<br>
<br>
Troy’s founders decided more than 120 years ago to buy a large
portion of the drainage that supplies the town with its water.<br>
<br>
Their foresight may provide the town with the water it needs for years
to come.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed Troy’s current reservoir
in the 1930s. The town didn’t start using groundwater until the
1970s.<br>
<br>
Whitney said the existing reservoir was nothing more than a muddy hole
last summer, and the wells were running dry.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
The town already has water rights to the drainage area, but it needs a
permit to move the holding area down Big Meadow Creek.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
IF YOU GO<br>
<br>
* WHAT: Town meeting to hear from the public on whether the city
should pursue a reservoir.<br>
<br>
* WHEN: Troy Lions Club<br>
<br>
* WHERE: Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.<br>
<br>
Ryan Bentley can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 237, or by e-mail
at <a href="mailto:rbentley@dnews.com">rbentley@dnews.com</a>.<br>
=======================================================<br>
List services made available by First Step Internet,<br>
serving the communities of the Palouse since
1994. <br>
<span
></span>
http://www.fsr.net <span
></span
> <span
></span> <br>
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>
=======================================================</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
</body>
</html>