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DAM-L Demands on water may drain supply in Spokane, USA. (fwd)



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From: Right to Water <right-to-water@iatp.org>
To: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
Subject: Demands on water may drain supply in Spokane, USA.
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 17:00:27 -0500
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Right to Water (right-to-water@iatp.org)    Posted: 06/25/2001  By  svarghese@iatp.org	
============================================================



Demands on water may drain supply: officials fear aquifer can't sustain
projects By Karen Dorn Steele - Staff writer, Sunday, June 24, 2001

With a two-year drought and an untamed energy crisis in the West, the
underground water supply for Spokane and Coeur d'Alene is under siege.

Spokane officials are waving caution flags as new peak-demand energy plants
seek permits in Idaho to suck nearly 20 million more gallons from the
Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer each day to drive power turbines.

It's a classic environmental tradeoff, pitting the region's need for power
versus a reliable water supply.

The vast aquifer flowing from Idaho through glacial gravel is considered
Spokane's most precious natural resource.

Its abundance has often been taken for granted -- until now.

"If all these projects were to be built, it could be the equivalent of a
third of Spokane's average daily use. The level of concern is rising here
about water availability," said Lloyd Brewer, director of environmental
programs for the city of Spokane.

Spokane officials warn that the aquifer, which provides 88 percent of all
the ground water in Spokane County, is a finite resource. They also feel
helpless because Idaho controls most of it.

Much of the water in the 119-square-mile aquifer "derives from recharge
that occurs in Idaho," according to a 1996 report prepared for Spokane
County planners.

Of the aquifer's daily total flow, 13.1 million gallons come from
precipitation and 430 million gallons from watersheds in Idaho. Estimates
of water that can be safely pumped ranges from 443 million gallons to 823
million gallons a day.

The report says the aquifer can meet Spokane's water needs until 2016 -- if
per capita demand doesn't increase.

It also warns that usage in Spokane County, peaking at 311 million gallons
a day in August, is nearly half of what can be safely withdrawn -- and says
water rights issued in Washington and Idaho may already exceed the
aquifer's safe yield.

The 1996 report didn't anticipate a cluster of new water-hungry power
plants in Idaho. Two are proposed and two are permitted.

In the past four or five years, growing conflicts between Idaho and
Washington over a basinwide cleanup of Idaho mining wastes has spilled over
to aquifer planning, said Stan Miller, Spokane County's aquifer program
manager.

"They consider us the `downstreamers,' and wish we'd go away," Miller said.

Idaho officials concede there's been little cooperation on water supply
issues, although both states have used federal grants to help protect water
quality in the aquifer.

It was designated a sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people under
the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1978. 

In 1986, Congress required a wellhead protection program and asked states
to report on their pollution prevention efforts.

"We've had good coordination on water quality for years. But on water use,
there's less," said Brian Painter of the Idaho Department of Environmental
Quality.

Spokane officials have been openly critical of Idaho, but haven't asked to
meet with their Idaho counterparts to discuss the proposed new power
plants, said Bob Haynes, regional water manager for the Idaho Department of
Water Resources.

"If they are concerned, I'd think they'd give us a call. There's been no
communication," he said.

The Rathdrum Prairie is ideal for the new plants because the aquifer offers
abundant water and a natural-gas pipeline runs nearby, Haynes said.

"There may be larger questions of whether this is good for the community,
either in Idaho or Washington," he said. "But solely for locating a power
plant, it's as good as it can get."

The new water withdrawals also have serious implications for the Spokane
River, which intermixes with the aquifer in the Spokane Valley, Miller said.

"The Idaho power plants will make inflow to Washington lower. Every drop we
take out of the aquifer will diminish flow in the Spokane River," Miller
said. The river is already stressed by overly high temperatures, PCBs and
heavy metals pollution.

Adding to the cross-border problems, Idaho and Washington have entirely
different systems of water rights.

Absent evidence that a new water use would curtail existing water rights or
conflict with "local public interest," Idaho law says new water permits
must be granted.

On the Rathdrum Prairie, water permits granted to power plants total 17
million gallons per day.

Avista has operated two natural-gas turbines on the Idaho prairie since
1995 that generate 160 megawatts of electricity.

In May, two other power companies, Newport Northwest LLC and Cogentrix
Energy, applied for permits for an additional 12 million gallons a day.

And Idaho regulators are also reviewing a request for an additional 6.9
million gallons a day for North Idaho Power, a Cogentrix subsidiary, that
would serve a new 800-megawatt plant.

In contrast, there's a near-moratorium on new water rights in Washington as
the state responds to a Legislature-mandated review of Washington's
dwindling water supplies.

The Washington Department of Ecology stopped issuing new water rights for
the Spokane aquifer in 1994.

Idaho's new natural-gas fired power plants would have been denied water in
Washington.

"If they'd applied here, we wouldn't have given them water rights. We'd
say, `Get in line like everyone else,"' said John Covert, a hydrogeologist
with the Washington Department of Ecology.

"Water is a finite resource, and with 5 million people in Washington state,
it's getting more precious. There's a big statewide backlog in water rights
because there's more demand than supply," Covert said.

So who owns the rights to the water flowing beneath our feet?

In Spokane County, the biggest water user by far is the city of Spokane.

The city has the right to 348 million gallons per day, but uses an average
63 million gallons daily -- five times more than the next-largest purveyor,
the Consolidated Irrigation District of Greenacres.

No. 3 is Kaiser's Mead smelter, now idled during the regional power crisis,
followed by several irrigation districts, smaller water suppliers and
industries.

In North Idaho, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation
holds the biggest water right, for the East Greenacres Irrigation District
near Post Falls.

The district pumps up to 48 million gallons for irrigation and domestic use
on a hot summer day, but uses only 1 million gallons a day in the winter,
said Paul Baker, district manager.

The East Greenacres system serves 6,000 acres, with 1,400 domestic water
supply hookups and 550 irrigators. 

It is permitted to take up to 58.3 million gallons a day for irrigation and
domestic use.

The Bureau of Reclamation also holds water rights for several smaller water
systems near Hayden Lake and Dalton Gardens.

North Idaho's No. 2 water rights holder is the city of Coeur d'Alene,
permitted to take 19.4 million gallons a day but averaging 8 million
gallons daily.

It is followed by Kootenai Generation LLC, Newport Northwest's proposed
1,300 megawatt gas turbine plant on the Rathdrum Prairie; the Hayden Lake
Irrigation District; and North Idaho Power LLC, the proposed 800-megawatt
gas turbine plant on the Rathdrum Prairie.

North Idaho Power has obtained a permit for 6.9 million gallons a day, and
has requested a second permit for the same amount, said Allen Beardslee,
senior water resource agent at Idaho's Department of Water Resources.

For the first time, Washington planners are trying to add up all the water
use in the aquifer and study the aquifer's impact on the Spokane River for
a regional study due in 2005.

The data on water use in the aquifer will be available this year.

As part of that review, the planners will be asking more questions about
the impact of the Idaho power plants on the river and the aquifer.

Washington is one of six states with laws requiring detailed study of the
environmental impacts of large industrial projects.

Idaho doesn't require the same level of environmental review.

"We need to know what the new power plants will be doing with their
wastewater. If it's drawn into the river in January and February, nobody
will care. But if it's in the summer, when the river is 60 degrees, we'll
have serious problems" because the wastewater is warm, Miller said.

"We simply don't have enough information yet," he said.

Karen Dorn Steele can be reached at 459-5462 or by e-mail at
karend@spokesman.com.

Source: Spokesman-Review.com



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