Members Attendance

VISITORS:  John Bush, UI Professor Geological Sciences; Nancy Chaney, Moscow City Council; Bill French, PWCN; Bob Haynes, CDA Regional Manager IDWR; Jim Osiensky, UI Professor geohydrology; Loy Pehrson, UI student; Kathleen Warnick, interested citizen.
 

1)      Call to Order and Approval of January 16, 2004 Minutes
Jay Becker, the PBAC Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:35 PM.  The minutes of the January 16, 2004 meeting were approved by consensus.

2)      Alyssa Douglas – Radiometric Dating of Palouse Basin Ground Water and Attempts to determine Ground Water Movement
Douglas used a Power Point presentation to show the Basin deep wells she has sampled and the ages of the water samples obtained from those wells and some preliminary findings.  The lack of deep wells between the communities of Moscow, Pullman, Palouse and Colfax has created difficulties in coming to any conclusions given the scatter of ages for the various water samples.  The youngest water samples were from shallow Grande Ronde wells midway between Moscow and Pullman.  A basic assumption of her thesis is that ground water is moving from younger to older, from that which has recently entered the ground water system toward locations where it has been in the system for a long time.  The oldest water samples were from the Moscow and Palouse areas but there were also relatively old samples from the west side of the Basin in the Pullman and Colfax areas.  Older water tends to be from deeper in the aquifer but Douglas also found exceptions to this.  Douglas is presently studying the chemistry of the water samples to see if these will yield further information concerning the probable movement of the ground water in the Basin.  Older water tends to take on more mineral ions and cations.  Douglas hopes to find trends in ion concentrations between younger and older water samples. 
Douglas expressed the desire and need for finding or drilling wells in the large unmonitored spaces between communities to fill in the gaps in monitoring, sampling and understanding.  John Bush encouraged PBAC to seek a water sample east of Moscow under the Wanapum for age and mineral ion content.

3)      Erik Stern – Update on Water Level Monitoring and what has been learned from the most recent large-scale Pump Tests
Stern briefly discussed the new loggers that PBAC has purchased and their use for monitoring in comparison to other, typically older, monitoring devices and systems.  He urged PBAC and the entities to seek to standardize monitoring equipment to simplify comparison and analysis of water level data throughout the Basin.
        At this time Erik has loggers collecting data in 17 area deep wells and 6 shallow wells.  The loggers are typically measuring water levels once an hour but during pump tests the sampling rate may be increased to once per minute to better track the pressure waves from the critical well(s) starting and stopping.
WSU has given PBAC permission to put a logger into WSU well # 8 until it is equipped with a pump provided the cap is wielded on anytime no one is present.  Stern put a logger in the well and had the cap wielded on.  It will be allowed to record for some time before the data are retrieved.
        There are only two non-pumping wells in those being monitored, the WSU test well and the DOE monitoring well.  Stern encouraged PBAC to seek additional monitor wells.  One option is to get permission from the cities and universities to use their older wells once they have been decommissioned.  WSU will be decommissioning several older wells this coming summer when the new WSU well # 8 is brought on line.   UI well # 2 in the shallow aquifer is another well no longer being used that PBAC is hoping to convert to a monitoring well.
        Stern mentioned the Wawawai well which he has been monitoring and also has sampled for the age of the ground water.  The well appears to be pulling water from the Snake River based on the age and mineral content of the water.
He showed graphs of the WSU test well and DOE monitor well water levels and how there has been a change in the slope from about 1.5 feet per year decline to a little over half a foot per year.  He emphasized that it was too early to attribute the change to the stabilizing of pumping from the deep aquifer but it is definitely worth noting and tracking.  Graphs of the two wells appear to be tracking each other very well but during the last large-scale pump test there was no apparent tracking of the pumping response between the two wells.  Stern will do some additional detailed analyses of the water level responses before the next large-scale pumping test.
He also showed a graph of the Palouse well that showed water levels declining in the summer during heavy pumping but then recovering to previous levels after the heavy pumping period.  Drawdown in the Palouse well is only about 4 feet.  Even though the well is in the Grande Ronde basalts, it is a relatively shallow well, being only about 350 feet deep.
        Stern’s summary included several suggestions to PBAC for improving monitoring.  First, PBAC needs more deep aquifer monitoring wells, especially in the critical spaces between communities.  He encouraged equipping the decommissioned city and university wells for monitoring.  WSU will shortly have several decommissioned wells which might be used for monitoring.  Second, the entities need to utilize a consistent method for collection of water level data.  Some entities compensate for barometric pressure, others do not.  Third, PBAC should seek geophysical exploration of key locations in the basin to try to resolve some of the unknowns and clarify the basin structure.  Stern emphasized that PBAC needs to closely monitor deep aquifer water levels to verify if the preliminary conclusion that water levels appear to be starting to stabilize is true.
        Stern said he tried to access the Champion well just west of the state line but access to the water surface is blocked by a jumble of wires that he could not get his tape through.  Barney Waldrop said he knew of a deep well in the vicinity of Pullman that might be available for PBAC to measure water levels in.   

4)      Bob Haynes – Follow up on his Idaho Water Law Talk at Monday evening IDWR Information Session-Haynes said the comment period for making input to IDWR concerning its response to the petition asking for declaration of the Idaho side of the Palouse Basin as either a Critical Ground Water Management Area (CGWMA) or a Ground Water Management Area (GWMA) would be open until at least the end of February.   The IDWR web site has information on the petition and the Palouse Basin.  Haynes said he had requested that Ground Water Management Area plans for various areas in Idaho should be available on the IDWR web site in the near future.  Of the GWMAs in Idaho, Haynes said the Rathdrum area most closely mimics the Palouse Basin situation.  A draft plan with recommendations to the director should be available in a month or two.   However, the Rathdrum situation is considerably behind the Palouse Basin planning.  The first task for the Rathdrum advisory group is to agree on a data set to be used.  The USGS is and will be helping with the data collection.  Eventually there will be a model constructed for the Rathdrum aquifer area. 
        As follow up to his remarks at the IDWR information session in the UI Law Bldg courtroom, Haynes said that a CGWMA declaration would shut off issuing any new water rights for the Idaho side of the Basin or for the deep aquifer if the designation was limited to that aquifer.  A GWMA declaration allows some flexibility so it would still be possible, given appropriate supporting data, to issue new water rights.  Again it was emphasized that domestic water rights of up to 13,000 gallons per day are exempt even in a CGWMA and so would continue to be issued.
        The appropriate response by the director of IDWR to the petition of the coalition is an order.  This finding may or may not include a declaration of a CGWMA or GWMA.
        Haynes also spoke to the possibility of using tiered water rates in Moscow to encourage greater conservation and efficient use.  He had received information from the City of CDA which indicated that tiered water rates are apparently illegal in Idaho.  (Information received from Haynes subsequent to the PBAC meeting indicate this statement is not true.  Tiered water rates are legal in Idaho.)

5)      Jay Becker Leaving PBAC and the Area for a New Job-  Becker, the current PBAC chair, said he has accepted a new job in western Washington and his last day working for the University of Idaho would be March 27, 2004.   Several options for filling the PBAC chair position were briefly discussed but no action was taken.  What direction PBAC should go will be discussed at the next meeting in March.

6)     Other Business  - Kirkland handed out an information sheet suggesting possible PBAC action concerning applications for small non-exempt wells in the shallow aquifer system.   This is a consequence of two such applications reviewed by PBAC several months ago.  The topic will be on the next agenda.

7)     NEXT MEETING DATE
There was some discussion about whether to hold a meeting during spring break.  It was agreed by consensus to hold the March PBAC meeting as scheduled on March 18, 2004 during spring break.

It was then moved, seconded and passed that the meeting be adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland