Members ATtendance

VISITORS:  Bill French, interested citizen; Elizabeth Miles, Master Gardener & Presenter; Kathleen Warnick, interested citizen; Harley Wright, Master Gardener & Presenter.
 

1)      Call to Order AND APPROVAL of may 16, 2002 Minutes- Mark Workman (Incumbent Chair) called the meeting to order at 2:30 PM.  Minutes for the May 16, 2002 meeting were approved as presented. 

2)      Xeriscape Presentation- Elizabeth Miles and Harley Wright, Moscow master gardeners, enthusiastically presented practical xeriscape tips for the Palouse region.   They presented all PBAC members with 11” x 17” versions of a large xeriscape poster that is being used at the Moscow Farmers’ Market and other places to educate locals about opportunities to conserve water and construct alternative yards using a variety of appealing xeriscape plants and landscaping.  Elizabeth and Harley passed around and displayed many plants that could be used in local xeriscape practices.  Both are implementing xeriscape practices in their personal home landscaping.  A lively question and answer period followed.   Tim Eden of Prairie Bloom Nursery on the Pullman-Moscow Highway is a local vegetation specialist who can answer xeriscape questions as well as supply a variety of xeriscape plantings.  Elizabeth encouraged PBAC members and the public to view the xeriscape garden in the UI Arboretum and the Lawson Garden in Pullman.  Elizabeth and Harley will regularly be at the Farmer’s Market in Moscow and available on call to help answer xeriscape questions. 

3)      Revisit to the Question of Entity Assessments in April Motion- In April the Committee passed a motion to continue entity assessments at the current level of $28,000 for each PBAC pumping entity and $4000 for the two counties.  Mark Workman, at the end of the May meeting, asked to revisit this assessment.  
        Mark expressed the concerns about the assessment that had been expressed to him.  These primarily centered on the apparent lack of significant progress toward a solution to stabilize the Grande Ronde aquifer water levels, given the funding over the past three years.   He also expressed his desire for an effective presentation to the Pullman Council to support his request for this level of funding.   Kirkland emphasized that significant progress has being made in recent years toward understanding the geohydrology in the Palouse Basin but no solution has yet been identified as the appropriate action needed to begin stabilizing the Grande Ronde water levels.   After input from several members it was decided to continue with the current assessment but work harder at educating the decision makers and public about the challenges to understanding the geohydrology in the basin as well as the progress that has been made in recent years. 
        Larry Kirkland reminded the Committee that an update on the OK research would be presented at the July meeting.  Kirkland hopes to incorporate key concepts from this presentation into educational presentations anticipated during the coming year.  PBAC members and the public were encouraged to actively participate in structuring the presentation format to make it as effective as possible.

4)      Review of what is needed to achieve the 2020 Goals- While the above assessment discussion was underway, Kirkland reminded the Committee that all potential solutions for stabilizing the Grande Ronde aquifer water levels will require significantly more financial participation from the entities than is currently being requested.  It likely will also take significant time to stabilizing the Grande Ronde aquifer water levels while providing for continued regional growth.  There is no question that use of funds should be carefully monitored but the public and decision makers need to be reminded that we all are going to have to be preparing to pay more for water if stabilizing the Grande Ronde aquifer water levels is to occur while providing for continued regional growth.  Entities should be considering ways to set aside funds in anticipation of these funding needs just as has been done for other capital outlays such as the recent Moscow WWTP expansion.

5)      Status on Proposed Projects and Research Support- Kirkland indicated that work on Moscow Mountain Runoff Assessment Project and the Water Chemistry and Microbiology Project are proceeding favorably.  He has enlisted Roy Mink to help with a request for funding from the Federal Government as a tag-on to the Rathdrum Prairie appropriation.  Roy is optimistic that $100,000 in funding can be secured during the conference committee proceedings when sources of funding are agreed upon.   A progress report on the Moscow Mountain Runoff Assessment Project will be presented at the August meeting.

6)      OLD BUSINESS

a)      Renewal of Intergovernmental Agreement
 Mark Storey reported that the Whitman County Commissioners are willing to participate as full signers of the agreement if they can be exempted from the funding stipulations.   Everyone agree that this is preferable to having them join via an addendum or MOU.  Larry and Tom Townsend will revisit Latah County to see is they are willing to participate under the same stipulation.

b)     Draft of PBAC Groundwater Management Plan available for review
Kirkland has not finalized his corrections to the updated Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee GWMP.   He hopes to hand out drafts at the next meeting.

7)      REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS –

a)      Exposure in the Communities –      
 Tom Scallorn, the Moscow Water Department Supervisor, reported that he will be teaching a 12 hour block on water to Upward Bound students this summer.    This would involve everything from the hydrologic cycle to stream sampling field trips to understanding aquifers.  Tom was looking forward to the challenge and mentioned the possibility of involving other PBAC members.

b)     Pullman was complimented on getting repermitted to dump WWTP effluent into the South Fork of the Palouse River.   Mark Workman, in response to a question, indicated that South Fork TMDL limits probably would not be set by Washington DOE until 2008.  However, work on the Palouse Basin WRIA could speed this up.

8)      NEW BUSINESS-N/A

9)      NEXT MEETING DATE

The meeting was adjourned by consensus.

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland