November 18, 2004 Meeting Minutes

pullman city hall, east end meeting room

Members Attendance

Visitors: Jim Osiensky, UI Professor; Mike McVay, UI Student; Katie Rhode, UI Student; Nicole Badan, UI Student; Mike Forbes, Moscow Citizen; Kathleen Warnick, Moscow Citizen; Eron Singleton, UI Student; Elizabeth Elias, UI Students; David Hall, Latah County Resident; Michael August, UI Student;  Bob Hayes, IDWR; Fritz Fiedler, UI Student; Megan Doyle, Daily News.

1. Approval of the November 18, 2004 Meeting Minutes – Rob Corcoran, the PBAC Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:35pm. The minutes were approved unanimously.

2. Naylor Protocol for General PBAC Use/Policy Statement – Workman provided copies of the protocol agreement between Moscow, Pullman and Naylor Farms. He also provided a layman summary of the protocol (handout). The goal of the protocol was to develop a step-by-step process to detect any potential adverse impacts from a pumping Naylor well on senior water right holders, whether City of Moscow, City of Pullman, Latah County  rural residents, Whitman County rural residents or City of Palouse. The protocol carefully details procedures for determining connectivity between any area senior water right wells and a Naylor well.  If any connectivity is observed, Naylor Farm agrees to cease further pursuit of developing the requested water right.  The general consensus was that any Naylor wells would have to be pumping from a separate water source for connectivity not to show up during the testing required by the protocol.  Since there are no deep wells in the vicinity of the Naylor Farm, allowing Naylor Farm LLC to  drill a well to test for connectivity will provide valuable information about  aquifers in the area at no risk and minimal cost to senior water right owners.

3. PBAC Position on Naylor Water Right Application - Kirkland encouraged PBAC to come up with a position statement on the Naylor Farm water right application. If PBAC decides to accept the protocol it could become part of PBAC’s Ground Water Management Plan.  In the discussion of whether to adopt the protocol, Workman stated that PBAC needs to carefully think through the long-term implications for such things as expansion of water rights for the growing communities in the basin. It was also suggested that a distinction between a new large application and the entities already in place be made by using the term ‘municipal use’. Kirkland suggested that a draft proposal might be a good project for a law student under the supervision of Dr. Cosen. After much discussion it was decided to table this item until the next meeting.

4. Access Agreement to Bond Monitoring Well - (Handout) This agreement will allow PBAC to install water level monitoring equipment and retrieve water level information from a well owned by Charles Bond. The property is located on the corner of College and Railroad Streets in Moscow, Idaho. The well is in the shallow aquifer system and not being pumped, which makes it a good monitoring well.  No well log for the well has been found.  Mr. Bond gave PBAC permission to conduct pump tests using the well but requested that PBAC not test for water quality. A motion to sign the agreement was passed unanimously.

5. WRIA Storage Project Input – (Handout) Kirkland encouraged PBAC to consider a joint project with WRIA evaluating means to increase the amount of fall, winter and spring runoff entering the ground water system.   This water would then be available as cool return flow in the summer or for pumping as needed.  At the last WRIA meeting projects to investigate the potential for increasing recharge in the Cow Creek system in the northwest portion of the Palouse River basin and along the North Fork of the Palouse were mentioned.  After some discussion, Kirkland was asked to present a project proposal at the next meeting that PBAC might support to enhance recharge along the North Fork of the Palouse River.

6. OLD BUSINESS
   1. Annual Report –  n/a

2. Budget Sheet –  n/a

7. REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
   1. Whitman County Monitoring Well Field – Proceeding with the Cunningham Farm well monitoring field is waiting on one more signature.  

2. Passive Recharge Project using UI Well #2 – This project is progressing slowly as details are worked out with the State of Idaho. Osiensky and Kirkland have been talking with IDWR and DEQ to find out what water quality tests must be done before anything further can happen. Depending on the testing required the cost of  analyzing a sample could run as high as $1000 to $1700.   If  testing for exotic hydrocarbons and pesticides, which have never been found in basin well water, can be excluded, then the cost per sample can be greatly reduced.

3. Exposure in the Communities – Kirkland announced that Latah County has all the wells in the county on a GIS overlay map.  The data includes the names of well owners.

8. NEW BUSINESS – No new business

9. NEXT MEETING DATE –

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland

 

NOTE: These minutes are submitted in draft form and have not yet been approved by the committee.