Members ATtendance

X	UI: Larry Kirkland, Facilities Engineer	X	WSU: Terry Ryan
X	UI: Jay Becker (Chair), Assistant Director, Utilities and Engineering	X	WSU: Pete Grigas, Facilities Planning
X	Moscow: Tom Scallorn, Water Dept. Superintendent	X	Pullman: Mark Workman, (Vice Chair) Dir. Public Works
	Moscow: Steve Busch, City Council Member	X	Pullman: Sue Hinz, City Council Member
X	Moscow: Mark Cook, Director Public Works		Pullman: Art Garro
X	Latah County: Tom Townsend, citizen		Whitman County: Jerry Finch, County Commissioner
	Latah County: Loreca Stauber, County Commissioner Moscow		Whitman County: Mark Bordsen, County Planner

VISITORS: John Diamond (UI Grad Student), Jerry Fairley (UI Dept Geological Science), Bryony Hansen (Golder Associates Inc., CD’A), Eddie Teasdale (UI Grad Student); Rachel Teasdale

1. Call to Order AND APPROVAL of OCTOber 18, 2001 Minutes

Jay Becker (Chair) called the meeting to order at 2:40 PM. Minutes for the October
18 meeting were approved as presented.

2. Eddy Teasdale – Presented findings from his thesis, “Evidence for Structural Partitioning of Ground Water resources in Moscow, Idaho, Pullman, Washington and the Surround Area”. His Power Point presentation was very informative and included considerable discussion with PBAC members and visitors. He used well logs to plot subsurface structures and aquifer flow paths. He also drew heavily on OK project research as well as prior studies. His hypothesis, based on a variety of corroborating data, that Moscow and Palouse are in a Grande Ronde subbasin separate from Pullman and Colfax, sparked considerable interest. He had no good answer at this time for why the water levels in the Grande Ronde are dropping at essentially the same rates all across the study area if there are two subbasins. PBAC thanked Eddy for the presentation and agreed to discuss actions to verify or disprove the hypothesis at a future meeting.
In response to a question about what needs to be done, Eddy suggested three things: (1) that more work be done on the geology and the hydrology together; (2) that a data base be set up for all kinds of basin data to help future studies; and (3) a program for documenting detailed information from each new well drilled be started.
Tom Scallorn mentioned that water levels in Moscow’s eastern wells have been falling significantly less than in the western wells, possibly substantiating some recharge coming from recharge to the east of Moscow.

3. Idaho Grant

a. Status - Kirkland talked with Brian Patton and Karl Dreher of IDWR and was told that there is now $50,000 of Water Board revolving funds and $50,000 of DEQ funds available to PBAC but application for these will have to meet Water Board requirements. The next Water Board meeting is December 7 and 8 in Boise.

b. How propose to proceed - Kirkland will put a scope of work together following the three projects and USGS application mentioned in the previous meetings minutes. This will be submitted to Brian Patton of IDWR for preliminary review.
What happens after that will depend on the response of Brian Patton and Karl Dreher.
Since applications for federal matching funds available through IWRRI need to be made in December, the proposals will need to proceed on the assumption that at least some State funds will be available. Kirkland will work with appropriate researchers to get these put together.

c. Grant Applications - Kirkland reiterated that PBAC should apply for or participate in an appliction for a USGS grant that would be available next fall. Such a grant could run for several years. It could include a variety of interrelated objectives including the means for drilling one or more connector wells for enhancing recharge to the Grande Ronde, tracking water movement, researching interstate legal issues and gathering data to prove or disprove the subbasin hypothesis presented by Eddy Teasdale. This application is not due until next year but Kirkland will talk to interested parties about possible contents for such an application.

3. EXECUTIVE SECRETARY POSITION – Becker said that the principal candidate for the position was no longer available. The subcommittee agreed to formally advertise the position with the intent to interview suitable candidates whenever the applications are received.

4. ACTION PLANS – Kirkland suggested that the annual action plan submittal be changed to make it more informative. Instead of following the PBAC goals list generally used in the past, he suggest that entities just list all water related projects and action proposed for the coming year or even several years. This will be more informative and probably more helpful. Entities are already working to meet the one percent and goals established by PBAC. The projects and actions can be tracked during the coming year and where appropriate used for informing the public of progress in solving the water supply and water level stabilization issues and reminding the public of the need for their participation in conservation efforts.

5. OLD BUSINESS

a. Renewal of Intergovernmental Agreement -
This continues to be in process. Becker encouraged Moscow and Latah County to work out the needed changes to meet Idaho code and reach agreement on wording.

b. Palouse Basin WRIA –
Kirkland summarized his discussion with Rob Buchert of the Palouse Conservation District about where the application for planning money with Washington DOE for the Palouse Basin Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) is. Rob said the PCD is just waiting on a letter from Spokane County to submit the Planning grant application to WA DOE. Rob hoped to have a meeting in December to start the planning process. He already had several persons lined up who could act as facilitator and spoke of using Brown and Caldwell as the technical advisor for the planning phase. Since phase II money would be available in June, Rob wanted to fast-track the planning phase.

6. REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

a. Exposure in the Communities – Becker reported on the KQYU TV Town Hall Meeting which took place November 14 in the Moscow Council Chamber. Representatives from both Moscow and Pullman Councils were there as well as several PBAC representatives. Jay thought it went quite well.

b. Tom Scalleron announced that an AWWA teleconference on Security at Water Facilities would be downlinked at UI on November 27, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and all interested parties were invited to view it.

c. Earth and Faith Forum on Palouse Basin Water Supply – Kirkland will make a presentation at the Latah County Courthouse, room 2B at 7:00. All are invited.

7. NEW BUSINESS

a. There was a short discussion of continuing funding at the current level in the coming year. Workman suggested that it would greatly help to get some significant findings, breakthroughs or progress to help present this request. Others appeared to concur. Eddy Teasdale’s hypothesis of two separate subbasins in the Grande Ronde is an adequate attention getter but it only complicates potential solutions.

8. NEXT MEETING DATE

Thursday, December 20, 2001 at 2:30 pm

McClure Hall Room 411

The meeting was adjourned by consensus.

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Kirkland

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