December 14,
2000 Meeting Minutes
University of
Idaho, McClure Hall Rm. 311
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UI: Larry Kirkland,
Facilities Engineer |
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WSU: Craig Benjamin
(Chair), Assistant Director of Facilities Operations |
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UI: Jay Becker
(Vice-Chair), Assistant Director, Utilities and Engineering |
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WSU: Pete Grigas,
Facilities Planning |
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Moscow: Tom Scallorn,
Water Dept. Superintendent |
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Pullman: Mark Workman,
Dir. Public Works |
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Moscow: Steve Busch, City
Council Member |
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Pullman: Sue Hinz, City
Council Member |
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Latah County: Loreca
Stauber, County Commissioner |
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Whitman County: Les Wigen,
County Commissioner |
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Latah County: Tom
Townsend, citizen |
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Whitman County: Derek
Pohle, County Engineer |
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Executive Secretary and
Technical Advisor: Juliet McKenna |
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Mark Bordsen (Whitman County), Kevin Brackney (UI), Fritz Fielder (UI), Bill French (Moscow resident), Alex Kirk (WSU), Paul McDaniel (UI), Jason Mellin (UI), Richard Naskali (UI Arboretum), Toby O’Geen (UI), Paul Warnick (UI Arboretum), Kathleen Warnick (Latah County resident), Arthur Xu (WSU)
Craig Benjamin (Chair) called the meeting to order at 2:35 P.M. Minutes were approved as presented.
Basin soils are formed in windblown dust from the Columbia Basin which has accumulated episodically over the past 2 million years. Contrary to common thinking, the dominant component of local soils is not clay, but primarily silt. Soils are well-sorted (uniform grain size), vertically heterogeneous, and are slow to moderately slowly permeable. Bands of dense “paleosols” are also present in the soil profile. Because these paleosols have very low permeability, water can not penetrate them and water that enters the soil percolates downward and forms a shallow, perched water table on top of these zones.
Research on these perched water tables is being conducted at three locations in the Palouse region by Prof. McDaniel and Toby O’Geen. The researchers sample the perched water and record water levels using a dense network of shallow monitoring wells. The water level record indicates that these perched water tables are generally present from November to May and are very dynamic, rapidly responding to fluctuations in precipitation. Other researchers have discovered that more than 90% of total annual precipitation is present in the perched zone in December, and that 88% of annual precipitation moves laterally down hillslopes as throughflow in the perched zone, eventually being discharged at streams or springs. This information suggests that maximum recharge to subsurface (beneath perched zone) is on the order of 10 % of total precipitation.
Soil maps indicate the distribution of soil types that are conducive to formation of a seasonal perched water table. The highest incidence of these soil types is in the eastern part of the basin, in Latah County. These maps can be used to identify areas that are not likely to have a perched water table and therefore are more likely to allow groundwater to recharge deeper aquifers. Using GIS, the soil maps can be combined with hillslope, geologic, and precipitation data to identify areas that are the most likely areas for effective subsurface recharge. Students are currently working with Professor McDaniel on this project.
Toby O’Geen’s Ph.D. research involves using natural tracers to estimate residence times of perched water in soil. Chlorine (Cl-) is an ideal natural tracers because it is not taken up by plants. Thus, in the root zone, Cl- concentrations in water increase as plants take up water from the soil through evapotranspiration (ET). Therefore, the longer the residence time of perched water in the soil, the greater the concentrations of Cl-. Based on the depth profile of chlorine concentrations that have been measured at field sites in the Palouse, mass balance calculations suggest that the Cl- concentrations have built up over the last 3,000 years in perched zones. The conclusion is that water is not flushed through these perched zones and is trapped in dense zones of some Palouse soils. This result is supported by the presence of calcium carbonate filaments coating soil particles that have yielded C-14 dates of 10,000 years.
The legal review from the UI is still not completed. Once it is, the document will be finalized for signatures.
On December 12, Washington State Representative Don Cox and Senator Larry Sheahan were present for a Town Hall Meeting with the Pullman City Council to discuss legislative items and local concerns for the upcoming year. J. McKenna, S. Hinz, J. Becker, and M. Workman met informally with both men before the meeting to introduce the PBAC and the local water supply problem. During the public comment period, J. McKenna spoke about the water issue and asked for the legislator’s help in securing funds to match the $200,000 requested from the state of Idaho.
On December 13, J. McKenna, M. Workman, and S. Hinz met with Washington State Rep. Mark Schoesler, whose district includes Pullman. After reviewing the water supply situation and Idaho’s request for matching funds from Washington, Rep. Schoesler indicated his support for trying to obtain funding for the Pullman-WSU wastewater reuse project. He did not think that funding would be available for “research”, but funding for a specific project may have a greater likelihood for success. He requested a meeting with WSU and Pullman officials before the end of the year to discuss this further.
M. Bordsen, Whitman County Planner suggested that the Palouse Conservation District and the S. Fork Paradise Creek Committee should be informed of this project. M. Workman agreed, and noted that there are concerns both with putting treated wastewater into the creek (water quality issues) and concerns with not putting water into the creek (stream flow issues), and that both issues will need to be addressed at some point in the future.
There was no progress to report on the Idaho side. A meeting with Representative Tom Trail is scheduled for December 21, 2000.
J. McKenna presented a draft of slides to be used at the breakfast on January 3, 2001 at 7 am at University Inn in Moscow. Comments from PBAC members included: emphasize progress that PBAC has made, do not sound alarming, and focus on the solutions to the problem.
[Note: a copy of a front page article on the presentation from the Moscow-Pullman Daily News is attached.]
Moscow – J. McKenna and T. Scallorn applied for an EPA grant for water quality and water conservation projects. The proposal was for $100,000 to extend the pipeline for treated wastewater for irrigation of city property. A decision is expected by mid-January.
Moscow and the UI – Efforts to begin a xeriscape demonstration garden have been stalled while trying to identify an appropriate space. One option is to utilize the UI Arboretum. Richard Naskali, Arboretum Manager and Paul Warnick, Arboretum Horticulturist, were present to discuss the idea. The southern end of the Arboretum is undeveloped, but plans call for display gardens and a xeriscape garden would be appropriate in this space. Due to past experiences in which volunteers proved to be unreliable, he would not allow the project to rely on volunteers for maintenance. Other considerations include:
1) Extensive planning is essential to insure a quality installation. Planning needs to address site selection, plant selection, irrigation, labeling, and maintenance. All plants need to be identified and be first class specimens. If the money was available today, planting could not realistically begin until 2002.
2) Adequate funding to provide for long term maintenance must be in place prior to construction. Funding needs to come from outside the UI. minimum costs would be $5-10,000 for startup with $1-2,000 per year for maintenance
3) The garden has to be large enough to provide a broad palette of plant material and design options. If the goal of the garden is to influence people to use xeriscaping in their own yards there must be a wide variety of options presented to inspire the widest possible range of people. Site must be at least 10,000 ft2 to be visible and effective.
UI – Arboretum management also was interested in the discussion of exporting more effluent water from the Moscow sewage treatment plant. The arboretum currently uses the maximum amount of effluent that the current system can deliver, but additional water could be used, especially when the southern portion is developed. This would likely require the UI to install a new pump and a second dedicated pipe to golf course. Another possibility would be to pump more effluent through our to enhance the enhance the beauty of the site.
Latah County - Tom Townsend reported that the Paradise Creek TMDL (total maximum daily load) project has approved a monitoring plan and the project is continuing.
Thursday, January 18,
2000 at 2:30 pm
McClure Hall Room 411
NOTE ROOM
CHANGE FOR THE SEMESTER
The meeting was adjourned by consensus.
Respectfully Submitted,
Juliet M. McKenna
Executive Secretary/Technical Advisor