Members Attendance

VISITORS:  John Bush, UI Professor Geological Sciences, emeritus; John Dickenson, Moscow City Council; Kathleen Warnick, interested citizen.

1)      Call to Order and Approval of May 20, 2004 Minutes- Rob Corcoran, the PBAC Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:35 PM.  The minutes of the May 20, 2004 meeting were approved by consensus.

2)      WSU Concern about Continuation of Paying $20,000 Annually for Research- Rob Corcoran said that the WSU Business Affairs office pointed out that the original motion in support of the $20,000 research supplement was for only three years.  Rob indicated that some justification was needed for continuing the request for the $20,000 annual research supplement and asked if there is an expected time limit on this request.  Kirkland explained that PBAC is aiming to have the necessary research on the Palouse Basin completed by 2010 so that a decision can be made as to the best method for stabilizing the Grande Ronde aquifer system water levels and ensuring a long-term water supply for the region.  After the results of the OK Project and related findings indicated that the basin geohydrology is much more complex than previously envisioned, PBAC members agreed to continue the research assessment so that the critical research on basin geohydrology could continue.  Mark Workman suggested that the research request should probably be more.   He also said an audit of Pullman expenditures requested documentation of the motion requesting the extension of the $20,000 annual research supplement.  Kirkland supplied the July, 2003 minutes containing the motion to continue the request and Workman said that satisfied the City of Pullman auditors.  There was discussion about a possible Memorandum of Understanding or Agreement between WSU and PBAC.  However, after further discussion  Corcoran requested that Kirkland provide a copy of the July, 2003 minutes in which PBAC passed a motion authorizing continuation of the $20,000 research assessment and that he also prove a copy of the annual report accomplishments and PBAC’s goals through 2010.  Corcoran said he would see if these would satisfy the WSU Business Affairs office.

3)      Continued discussion of Budgeting for Fiscal Year 2005 starting in July, 2004- Kirkland handed out a summary budget sheet covering fiscal year 2004 and the proposed budget for fiscal year 2005.  He briefly reviewed last years expenditures and the carryovers to FY 2005, the contingency and matching funds not used and the monitoring well field project funding.  For FY 2005 there are five projects proposed with a sizeable contingency/matching fund in case State of Idaho funds become available and/or additional federal funds.  Kirkland explained that the three two year thesis project: (1) Grande Ronde Water Level Monitoring and Analysis, (2) Shallow Aquifer Water level monitoring and Analysis, and (3) Geophysical Assessment of Palouse Basin budget figures were raised by $3000 each to ensure adequate coverage of the travel required, necessary minor expenditures and equipment rental, especially for the geophysical project.  After a number of questions and some discussion, it was requested that Kirkland provide an updated version of the budget form each month with an “Expenditures to Date” column and an item number for each research and data management project.  The budget sheets are to be dated for ease of tracking.  No motion adopting the proposed budget was made.   

4)      Idaho Interim Natural Resource Legislative Committee Hearing- Kirkland reviewed the assignment to the interim committee which is to come up with proposals for dealing with 5 of Idaho’s ground water basins which are considered critical or challenged for legal or ground water management reasons.  The Interim Natural Resource Legislative Committee held a hearing in Moscow on May 28 to hear background on the Palouse Basin.  Senator Gary Schroeder emphasized several times at the hearing that the Committee was charged to address the funding needs to expedite solutions for all the ground water basins under consideration, not just the Snake River Plain problems. 
        Dale Ralston presented a similar Power Point presentation to the one presentated at the February IDWR hearing.  Kirkland reviewed PBAC’s history, its goals and the critical projects needed to prepare PBAC entities to stabilize the Grande Ronde aquifer system water levels and ensure a quality long-term water supply for the region.  General costs were presented for the five key projects PBAC had discussed at the May meeting.  The Committee requested more specific figures from PBAC and Dale Ralston responded that more specific figures would be available in August, 2004. 
        After some discussion of the short time available, it was agreed that a draft set of costs should be available for the July meeting.  A motion was passed authorizing up to $2000 for a scope review for the proposed projects to ensure that justifiable figures are presented to the Interim Natural Resource Legislative Committee as requested.  

5)      Naylor Farm LLC Water Right Intervener Hearing on June 25th-  Kirkland reported that Bob Haynes, Manager of the IDWR regional office in CDA, had requested that the four interveners: Latah County, Whitman County, Kelly Moore – a concerned Moscow citizen, and Lois Blackburn, on behalf of the Moscow Civic Association, meet with the Naylor Farm representatives to attempt to come to a consensus on the protocol previously agreed to by the cities of Moscow and Pullman and the Naylor Farm LLC representatives.   Kirkland indicated that this hearing would determine whether IDWR could proceed with processing the Naylor Farm water right application or a hearing needed to be held to deal with the intervener issues before processing the Naylor Farm water right application.  Kirkland said he would be attending the hearing in the Latah County Courthouse for information purposes.

6)      Status of IDWR Order regarding Idaho Portion of the Palouse Basin - Kirkland said he included this item on the agenda because several IDWR personnel had said Director Dreher would issure his order addressing the 8 requests of the “Coalition” in June.  The requests to IDWR director included classification of the Palouse Basin aquifers as either a Critical Ground Water Management Area or a Ground Water Management Area.   IDWR personnel said suggestions in a draft order have been circulating through appropriate IDWR personnel but no final order has been issued by Director Dreher.
 

7)      OLD BUSINESS

a)   Annual Report- Kirkland apologized that the final version of the Annual Report was still not complete.  He said a top priority is to have it available at the next meeting.

8)      REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

a)  WRIA -  Kirkland said the WRIA Planning Unit (PU) began addressing the supplemental grant topics of the Phase II portion of the WRIA project.  These include “Instream Flow “, “Storage”, and “Water Quality”.  There is $100,000 available for the WRIA Planning Unit to address each of these special topics in more detail.  Instream Flow was the focus of the last meeting.  When Storage was briefly mentioned, the PU seemed agreed that above ground storage had been considered by the Corps of Engineers and did not need to be considered in more detail by the PU.  Considerable interest was expressed in ASR (Aquifer Storage and Recovery).  Kirkland urged PBAC members to consider how PBAC might team up with the Palouse Basin WRIA for a synergistic project in ASR.  This topic will be considered in depth at a September WRIA meeting.
In response to a question about how ASR might work, Kirkland explained that the simplest and least expensive means to increase ground water recharge and storage would be to divert water from winter flows of the Palouse and/or it’s tributaries to sites where natural recharge can occur.  Use of waste water treatment plant effluent and precipitation for increasing recharge and storage are also options.  Injection of water into the aquifers is only an option if the water is first treated to drinking water standards, in Kirkland opinion.

b)  Water Rate Increases -  Tom Townsend asked what impact the Avista electricity rate increase would have on water rates.  Les MacDonald said the Moscow base rate has been increased by 10 percent and the commodity rate by 5 percent.   These rate increases have no direct connection to the Avista electricity rate increase.
        Mark Workman said Pullman rates are scheduled to increase by 4 percent per year for the next 5 years.  Sewer rates will go up 3 percent per year over the same period and hookup fees will go up 10 percent per year.  Pullman has proposed expanding its summer rate schedule for single family residences to four tiers.  There is no charge beyond the monthly service fee for less than 500 cubic feet; $1.30 per 100 cf for 500 to 800 cubic feet; $1.40 per 100 cf for 800 to 2000; and $1.75 per 100 cf for more than 2000 cubic feet per month.  Pullman has also proposed expanded rate structures for multi-family dwellings and commercial properties and a special irrigation rate for connections just used for irrigation.  This rate is $1.40 per 100 cubic feet for less than 25,000 cubic feet per month and $1.75 per 100 cubic feet for more than 25,000 cubic feet per month.  Parks, schools and landscaping are examples of properties in this rate category.

c)   Water Conservation as part of WSU Long Range Planning- Joe Kline reported that WSU President Rawlins challenged the WSU planning taskforce to ensure that deep aquifer pumping by WSU remained constant or continued to drop, following a WSU pattern over the past 20 years.  WSU has managed to significantly reduce pumping due to conservation measures implemented over this period.  In response to a question, Rob Corcoran said the new WSU power plant is expected to save 38 to 45 million gallons of water per year.

d)   New Water Classification for Idaho- Peg Hamlett reported that the Idaho Department of Water Resources is proposing a new classification of water called “injection effluent”.   Since no additional details were available, Kirkland said he would have report for a future meeting.

9)      NEXT MEETING DATE

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland