Members ATtendance

VISITORS:  Emily Adams, City of Colfax; Norma Becker, Mayor, City of Colfax; Scott King, King Groundwater Science, Inc; Gary Wells, Senior Facilities Engr; Roger Whitten, Whitman County Planning Commission.

 

1)      Call to Order AND APPROVAL of September 19, 2002 Minutes
Jay Becker, due to the absence of both the Chair and the Vice Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:35 PM.  Minutes for both the August  22 and September 19, 2002 meetings were approved with minor corrections. 

2)      WSU campus Well # 8     
Gary Wells, senior facilities engineer at WSU, handed out two maps showing the location where WSU will be drilling well # 8 in the near future and a diagram showing the planned design for the well.   Since WSU’s older wells are no longer producing the quantities of water needed, the plan is to develop another well that will produce similar to well # 7 which produces 2500 gpm and is the workhorse well for WSU.  Initially well # 8 will be limited to 1500 gpm because that is the limit for the water right on well #6 which is being transferred to well # 8.  Well # 6 now is only producing 900 to 1100 gpm.  However, for emergencies the new well could be pumped over this amount.   WSU eventually hopes to get a combined water right for well # 8 that will allow it to be pumped at 2500 to 3000 gpm.  This amount will sustain the WSU campus even on the worst day.  At the moment there is no single backup if well # 7 goes down.   The long-range objective is to have Well #7 plus two others that have a capacity similar to well # 7. 
Gary said he hopes to hire a reverse air rig to do the drilling so that WSU does not have to dispose of 2500 to 3000 gpm of water during the completion of the drilling.
WSU has budgeted $380,000 for the drilling of the well.   The target depth is 1000 feet.  The planned schedule calls for going out for bids in October and then drilling in November and December and possibly January.   WSU plans to fully equip the well with a state of the art SCADA system.   This will allow WSU to provide comprehensive and very exact data on water levels both during pumping and when not pumping.  Dale Ralston is the hydrogeologist for WSU on this project.
Gary assured PBAC that WSU will carefully log the drilling and make samples available for analysis.  PBAC also discussed the previously mentioned goal of getting the OK Project observation well drilled prior to the pump testing of WSU well # 8.   Kirkland indicated that he had talked to Jim Osiensky about this goal and both agreed that it would be better to monitor the WSU well # 8 pump test from all possible wells and then decide, based on which basin the new well is located in, to attempt to site the observation well just across the apparent boundary in the other real or hydraulic subbasin.   This will maximize the data collection in the vicinity of the hypothesized subbasin boundary.  
Gary also handed out a graph of WSU pumping in 2000, 2001 and 2002 showing that 2002 WSU pumping is below the previous two years through August of 2002.

3)      Request for Support of Cluster Developments in Whitman County

     Roger Whitten, who is on Whitman County Planning and Zoning, said Whitman County P & Z has been given the task of coming up with an improved zoning ordinance for interfacing residential and agricultural lands that can be submitted to the Washington Legislature.   The present ordinance allows for a cluster of up to six houses around one well.  Whitman County P & Z would like to see a significant buffer zone around 16 houses on 1 acre lots, supplied by 1 well, within 160 acres.  This would allow at least 80 acres that the residential owners could lease out for farming or do with as they pleased to act as a buffer between the surrounding ag lands and the residential development.  It would also making providing rural services such as fire protection, school bussing, mail delivery and transportation maintenance less costly.
PBAC agreed that having 16 houses receiving 800 to 1200 gpd of water would be significantly more efficient than 16 house able to pump 5000 gpd.   It was also suggested and agreed that use of best management practices (BMPs) in building design and landscaping would help to minimize the withdrawal of ground water and maximizing infiltration which might recharge the shallow aquifer.   PBAC recommended pumping from the Wanapum or shallow aquifer, which is known to be recharging, rather than from the Grande Ronde or deep aquifer which does not appear to receive any annual recharge.  Kirkland was charged with working with Roger to come up with a possible motion of support from PBAC for the next meeting.  (See copy of email communication from Kirkland to Whitten for more details.)

4)      Review of two applications for large water rights in the Palouse Basin 

a)      An organic farm operation north of Moscow requesting 2.4 bgpy
Kirkland reported that he had receive information from the CDA office of IDWR on an application for up to 2.4 billion gallons per year of ground water by Ralph Naylor Farm LLC.  Kirkland was alerted to this application by Jay Becker after a citizen alerted the City of Moscow of the legal notice in the local newspaper.   Kirkland contacted one of the principals about the application.   The party indicated that the Naylor Farm group had talked with IDWR personnel in Boise, Lewiston and CDA and none had even mentioned to them that the Palouse Basin is under intense study due to the long-term decline in the primary aquifer and pressure from IDWR.  After a long discussion of the situation with Kirkland the Naylor Farm representative indicated he would talk to others in the application group about withdrawing the application.
Kirkland explained that the Naylor Farm group’s two part application had to do with irrigating organic crops to increase productivity and the return from owning the land and to provide water for coating special clay, which may be in clay deposits under the property, with a suspension agent for later use in sprayers.  The clay insecticide would be demonstrated on the Naylor organic farm and sold to other organic farmers.
Considerable discussion followed about the possible implications and why IDWR would allow this huge application in a basin that is apparently being overdrawn.  The end result was a motion unanimously passed to protest the application to IDWR.

b)     The Garfield Application for up to 1 bgpy for a possible water bottling operation
 Kirkland reported getting an application for up to one billion gallons per year for a possible water bottling operation in the vicinity of Garfield.  The application was made in January, 2002.  Whitman County Planning passed a copy on to PBAC.  Kirkland mentioned hearing rumors about interest in a water bottling operation at Garfield last spring but was unaware that an application for a water right had been filed.   Kirkland talked to one of the principals and set a tentative date to meet with him and others.  He did not know much more about the application to tell the Committee at this time.  At this time it is unclear if Garfield is in the Palouse Basin.  Garfield also appears to be pumping out of shallower wells than the municipal pumpers on PBAC.  Kirkland promised to have more information by the next meeting.
Both the above large ground water pumping right applications raised disturbing issues for PBAC concerning communication with Idaho IDWR and Washington DOE.   Committee members thought the Ground Water Management Plan signed by both states indicated their agreement to provide information on all large ground water use applications.  Obviously that did not happen here.   Attempts will be made to pursue this further at a future meeting.

Due to the late time, the meeting was adjourned after agreeing to November 21, 2002 for the next meeting date.

5)      NEXT MEETING DATE

The meeting was adjourned by consensus.

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland

Note: these minutes are submitted in draft form and have not yet been approved by the Committee.