Members ATtendance

VISITORS:  Angie Petersen, Drinking Water Analyst, ID DEQ.

 

1)      Call to Order and Approval of March 18, 2004 Minutes
Rob Corcoran, the PBAC Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:37 PM.  The minutes of the March 18, 2004 meeting were approved by consensus.

2)      Research Agreements with Memorandum of Agreement (MOAs)
Kirkland passed out a draft PBAC memorandum of agreement.  It is similar to an agreement  proposed last fall before things got side-tracked trying to draw up a legal document for contractors with PBAC.   After the proposed legal document for contractors with PBAC had been reviewed and approved by UI legal counsel, a meeting between Jay Becker, Peggy Hammel, Larry Kirkland, JoAnn Uberagua and Barbara Vollmer determined that designating principal investigators or professors as contractors was not going to work.  Kirkland was given the job of redrafting a memorandum of agreement that would be workable and achieve the PBAC goals of clearly stating the research or project goals, the milestones, the deliverables, and any important conditions so that both parties are in agreement before the research or project begins.
After some discussion, it moved to accept the proposed MOA with the inclusion of a statement saying payment will be made based on progress in meeting milestones and the final payment will not be made until the project is complete.  Les MacDonald said he could not vote for the motion because he had not had time to adequately review the document.  The motion to accept passed with one decent.

3)      State of Idaho Basin Management Planning Initiative
The Idaho legislature, in the final days of the 2004 session, passed a bill directing the Natural Resource Committee members of the Senate and House to study critical ground water situations in Idaho, including the Palouse Basin, and report back to the legislature with recommendations for the next session.  Tom Stroschein and Les MacDonald attended the first general session in Boise, April 14.  Karl Dreher, director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources reviewed pertinent information for critical aquifers throughout the State.  Both the Palouse Basin and the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer were included in Director Dreher’s list of basins to be studied.  The Natural Resource Committee was then divided up into 5 subcommittees with each covering at least one problem area of the state.  The North Idaho Subcommittee will be covering the Palouse Basin and the Rathdrum aquifer.  Bob Haynes, the regional manager of IDWR out of Coeur d’Alene (CDA), and Dale Ralston will be acting as technical advisors to the North Idaho Subcommittee.  The first meeting of the North Idaho Subcommittee will be April 29 in CDA.  Meetings will continue thereafter, at least once a month, until the problems are understood, the appropriate benchmark data are gathered, the means of reducing water consumption and using water more efficiently are defined, and recommendations are agreed upon.  Stroschein and MacDonald were not clear on what the final result would be.
Stroschein said Dreher spoke favorably of the work of PBAC but also presented the possibility that recharge is having different effects in the Moscow and Pullman-Colfax areas.
After further discussion it was moved and passed unanimously that Kirkland contact the North Idaho Subcommittee to request that the Rathdrum Aquifer issues and the Palouse Basin issues be addressed at separate meetings in their respective communities.

4)      Discussion of including a Gravity-Magnetic Study of Basin in next Budget
Kirkland explained that Professor John Oldow, an expert in geophysical methods, is interested in helping PBAC define the Palouse Basin basement using geophysical methods.  He believes the new instrumentation is now capable of succeeding where previous instruments failed.  Oldow has the necessary equipment and is willing to supervise a student thesis project that will do the necessary fieldwork and analyses.  An excellent student is available who will be working with Oldow on geophysical projects in Nevada and Oregon this summer.  Kirkland said this is an timely opportunity to get critical information about the shape of the basement in a relatively short timeframe that could not get otherwise gotten without tremendous expense in drilling deep holes.  The cost of a master’s thesis is about $30,000 for 21 months of work spanning two fiscal years.
After some discussion Kirkland was directed to proceed with soliciting a draft proposal for an MOA and look into supplemental funding to leverage the PBAC investment.

5)      Annual Report Draft
 Kirkland handed out a draft of the annual report without the graphs and pictures.  Chairman Corcoran asked that comments be returned to Kirkland by the April 23^rd.

6)     Monitoring Well Field Project Update 
Dale Ralston has put together a specification sheet for bid proposals for the various aspects of the well field drilling project.  He is soliciting quotes from H2O Drilling out of Coeur d’Alene.  Quotes from other drillers will also be solicited.   When the desired information is accumulated, it will be presented to PBAC for direction.

7)     WRIA 34 All-Day Workshop
The workshop consisted of presentations covering the information gathered by the consultant on the major topics to be addressed in Phase II of the Palouse River Basin Plan Development.  No recommendations were made.  A future moderated session will review previous planning in light of the information gathered.

8)     REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

a)  Moscow Water Conservation Hearings
Les MacDonald and Tom Scallorn of the City of Moscow reported that the City’s water conservation consultant will present a draft report to the Public Works Finance Committee and then the City Council.  In addition, the Public Works Finance Committee will be making a recommendation to the City Council on an irrigation season ordinance that will probably limit the hours available for watering to between 6 PM and 10 AM.   There will probably be exceptions for businesses, new construction and possibly parks and schools.   Moscow is also planning to implement an interim tiered water rate billing structure before the coming irrigation season.

b) Pullman-WSU Water Recycling Project
Mark Workman and Rob Corcoran reported that both entities want to return to the Washington legislature with a request for full project even though Washington Governor Lock line-item vetoed the partial funding appropriation.   The reported reason was that the full funding should be appropriated all at once so as to guarantee the completion of the water recycling project.  The project is number two on WSU’s capital funding list.

c)   Corcoran also reported that WSU will be taking 5 acres off its irrigation system this summer to further reduce deep aquifer pumping.

d)  Peg Hamlett reported that the Palouse Mall will be taking steps to reduce irrigation needs by using low water need plantings and reducing the amount of grass.

 

9)     NEXT MEETING DATE
The May PBAC meeting date was corrected to May 20 and the April meeting was adjourned.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland

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