[Vision2020] Moscow-Pullman Aquifer

[Tom Trail]

Visonaries:  These are some thoughts that I shared with Bill London concerning
our aquifer problem.  The one established fact is that we are drawing the
aquifer down about 18 inches a year.  Former Rep. Gary Young and I obtained
a $100,000 appropriation several years ago from the Idaho Legislature to help
assist in studying the problem.  I believe that most of the money would be
used for monitoring and research studies.  The budget meltdown swallowed up
the appropriation.

One has to take a long term view in terms of protecting our very valuable
resource but short term measures must be implemented to protect against
excess loss from the aquifer.  When I worked with the Washington 
State Extension
Service several years ago, I remember that the Dept. of Ecology was greatly
concernedwith the number of new deep irrigation wells that farmers were putting
in for irrigation.  The various aquifers were going down at an alarming rate.
The Department stopped all drilling for new wells and monitored all 
existing wells.  Over a period of 10-15 years many of the aquifers 
were recharged and
many rose 30-40 feet over the original benchmark.   New permits were issued
in some areas but careful monitoring continued.  In several areas where the
aquifer continued to decline some existing wells were shut down.  This
experience should be useful to us as we assess what to do to preserve our
aquifer for today and future generations.

There are obviously many short term strategies that can be used, ie. watering
lawns on alternate days, using gray water for lawn watering, etc.  We only have
to look at the drought striken Southwest cities and towns to learn from their
experiences.

In regard to the Naylor water application--it is interesting to note that
during a committee meeting during the 03 legislature, the Head of the Idaho
Water Department said, "It is one thing to submit an application, and quite
another thing to approve it."  One can interpret that statement in
different ways.

Rep. Tom Trail/Dist. 6
-- 
Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
1375 Mt. View Rd.
Moscow, Id. 83843
Tel:  (208) 882-6077
Fax:  (208) 882-0896
e mail ttrail@moscow.com