Members Attendance

VISITORS:  Enuf Adams, City of Colfax**; Bill French, interested citizen; Jim Osiensky, Professor Dennis Owsley, Graduate Student in Geohydrology; Andy Rogers, City of Colfax**; Kathleen Warnick, interested citizen; Harley Wright, Master Gardener & Presenter.

 

1)      Call to Order AND APPROVAL of june 13, 2002 Minutes
Mark Workman (Chair) called the meeting to order at 2:30 PM.  Minutes for the June 13, 2002 meeting were approved as presented. 

2)      OK Project Update Presentation  - UI Proffessor Jim Osiensky and graduate student, Dennis Owsley used a Power Point presentation to review observations and study results of the Palouse Basin aquifer since pumping began in the late 1800s.   This was followed by recent findings from the OK Project.  The presentation was very informative and again highlighted the complexity of the unseen aquifer systems that supply water to the Palouse communities.  The following  highlights are taken from the historic review of Palouse Basin ground water investigations made by Jim and Dennis. Russell (1897) concluded that there is low storativity in the aquifer system from observations of the water table dropping quickly under pumping.  Laney (1923) In the 1950’s the shallow aquifer in the Moscow area, which was the primary source of water for Moscow and the University of Idaho, was dropping at about the same rate as the deep aquifer in the Pullman area.  After Moscow and the University of Idaho had drilled deeper wells into the Grande Ronde aqufer system in the 1950s and 60s and switched pumping from the shallow aquifer to the deep aquifer, the water levels in the deep aquifer began falling similar to the previous fall in the shallow aquifer.  The shallow aquifer, with most of the pumping pressure removed began a dramatic recovery to levels of the 1930s.  These comparable falls in the Pullman area aquifer water levels and the Moscow area water levels may be coincidental rather than due to a direct connection as has been generally assumed. About this same time work was done on water chemistry by Crosby, Stevens, Jones & Ross, Foxworthy and Washburn and Cavin. The consistent conclusion was that the water from the two areas had different chemistry.   The Isotopic signatures also implied that the waters were different and that water being pumped was 10,000 or more years old with minimal recharge since the last ice age. In the 50s & 60s Crosby and others made some attempts to use geophysical means to better understand the aquifers systems.  The results were of questionable value.
Jones & Ross in the 60s and 70s use a model to predict that the local water supply would last until 2070.  The assumptions about basin storativity and size are critical for such predictions. Based on a mass balance approach, the water levels are going down slower than expected.  Possibly the basin is bigger than estimated or there is some other unknown factor affecting the Palouse water supply.
Foxworthy and Washburn (1963), in a great study, identified two subbasins based on water chemistry.  They also suggested that artificial recharge be used to stabilize the water levels. Sokol (1966) did a study of water levels in area wells.  He found there was no connection between the lower and the upper aquifer systems. In the 1970s it was suggested that the University of Idaho use effluent water for golf course irrigation.  After several dry years, an irrigation system using Moscow WWTP effluent was installed in 1978. 
Smoot and Ralston and other concluded that the declines in water levels in the Moscow and Pullman areas do appear to correlate.
Barber (1979) built a very good 3D model by today’s standards. 

            The western boundary was determined by Union Flat Creek, Albion and Chambers.  Jim said that there is the possibility of Union Flat Creek providing recharge to the Wanapum based on the signature of the Wanapum water. More geophysical attempts were made in the 1980s but none were really successful due to the difficulty in separating the granite and the basalt. In the late 1980s Smoot, Lum and Ralston built a 3D model of the basin.  They simulated springs along the Snake River coming from the 1500 vertical feet of Grande Ronde even though they were not aware of any of the magnitude of flow needed.  We now know that the small amount of spring water flowing to the Snake is from the Wanapum rather than the Grande Ronde. 
        At this point in the presentation Jim and Dennis showed a number of slides of data from various wells showing different correlations.  Jim pointed out that background “noise” from barometric pressure changes to pumping wells made it difficult at times to see the correlations.  He is in the process of removing as much of the noise as possible to make the correlations more obvious.  He is looking at shallow aquifer water levels as well as deep aquifer water levels. The data seem to indicate that the subbasin divide runs right through WSU.  Jim is not sure whether it is a real or hydraulic boundary.  He leans toward a hydraulic boundary.  He said the lack of data on University wells is hurting the study.   The WSU test well appears to be in the east basin with the Moscow wells, the Palouse well and the DOE monitoring well. There is a very good correlation between the Palouse well and the DOE well. Moscow well #9 appears to be somewhat unique with complex connections to the surrounding wells.  At this time the reasons are unclear.  Where water levels change 10 feet in the surrounding wells, they change only 0.1 of a foot in #9.   Water levels go up in the summer in the Pullman area which is the opposite of the Moscow area where they fall in the summer.  This appears to support the possibility of recharge in the Pullman area with the lag time causing it to show up in summer. In the long-term everything may be leaking together but in the short-term there are significant differences. The McGreevey, Brawdy and Paulson wells are shallow aquifer wells being monitored.  The McGreevey well has shown significant recharge events in the summer.  These wells are very responsive to barametric pressue.
        Jim said he is currently talking with the State DEQ about what pollutants to sample for in the area water chemistry study.  He said he thought that the local Anatek Lab could do the testing cheaper than the State Lab. Dennis Owsley talked about continuity and recharge in the Grande Ronde aquifer system.  As far as recharge is concerned, it just does not appear to be occurring.  Again the connection between the Moscow and Pullman areas appears to be minimal. There are 3 production zones in the Pullman area in the Grande Ronde aquifer system but only 2 in the Moscow area.  Moscow has a lot of sediment in the upper section which does not produce and bottoms out against the granite much sooner than Pullman. Dennis reiterated the complexity of the systems.  Fracture zones appear to play an important part in well production.  Wells 50 feet apart can respond quite differently.  He gave various examples of this connectivity or lack of it. He also mentioned the possibility of a circular basin boundary; his use of modflow to test various hypotheses and the Glenwood artesian wells in the Colfax area.
        In the Q & A portion, Jim discussed where a monitoring well should be located to get the best results.   Need an easy access site close to WSU.  The McGreevy well is on the Pullman side of the divide and the DOE, Paulson and Brawdy are on the Moscow side.  No specific site has yet been picked.
        Talking about connection, Jim said the Palouse wells are relatively shallow.  They have a higher water table than the DOE well.
Jim talked about the downward potential in the area.  The deeper a well is drilled the lower the water table.  This is because of the downward potential.  Water flowing into a well from upper levels drains to the lower water table.  Somehow water in the deeper levels is  being drained.  He mentioned the WSU test well draining out through the Imnaha formation at the bottom of the well, over 2000 feet deep, which is below the Snake River.  As a result the bottom of the well was filled to prevent the drainage.
        Jim said he did not think we are ready to try to build a new model of the basin.  There are too many unknowns as yet.  The WSU test well, which appears to be in the east basin, creates serious problems.  We still do not know much about recharge.  Flow data and age dating of water create problems.  We are just beginning to study the area between Pullman and Colfax.  There appears to be a direct connection between Union Flat Creek and water pumped in Pullman. Kent Keller will present his portion of the report next month.  He is on vacation this month.

3)      Status of Proposed Projects and Research Support- Jim Osiensky reported that he has been talking with Joe Baldwin of Boise DEQ and Hudson Mann of Lewiston DEQ about what should be included in the tests of water samples from local well.   DEQ has said it wants testing for all potential pollutants which means $2300 per sample.  Jim thinks he can get them to reduce the number of pollutants in the tests based on their absence in previous testing.   This would reduce testing costs to about $615 per sample and allow considerably more samples to be tested with the available funds.  Kirkland reported that the Palouse River Basin WRIA 34 held an information meeting in Pullman.   Doug Allen of Washington DOE in Spokane made a Power Point presentation on the Washington WRIA  process, its background and what has occurred todate.   The first public hearing meeting will be held in Colfax on July 30, 2002.  Rob Buchert of the Whitman County(?) Conservation District is heading the planning phase until a professional facilitator is hired to guide the planning process.   The Phase I Planning Process will last a year.  Assuming it is successful, it will be followed by the Phase II ____  Process and the Phase III ______ Process.   One of the bigger challenges is how to include the Idaho portion of the basin since this is a Washington funded initiative. The next Palouse River Basin WRIA organizational meeting will be ­­­­_____.
 

4)      REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS –

a)      At this point PBAC ran out of time and decided to conclude the meeting.

b)     Art Garro announced that Pete Grigas, one of WSU’s representatives is leaving WSU and the Committee.   It was suggested that Gary Wells who heads the WSU water supply section be invited to replace Grigas.

5)      NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business.  The meeting was adjourned. 

6)      NEXT MEETING DATE

The meeting was adjourned by consensus.

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland