Coalition seeks quick fix to depleting aquifer

Recharge projects may complement CBDL movement

COLUMBIA BASIN — The rattle coming out of Sammy Stahl's sprinklers is a combination of water and air.

A farmer in the area for about 20 years, Stahl said his wells are at their maximum depth, going down to about 1,000 feet.

The declining levels of the Odessa Sub-area Aquifer are taking their toll on Stahl's business, as well as his neighbors'.

Stahl usually grows potatoes and beans on his property several miles of north of Wheeler Road, but not lately.

He knows he's going to run out of water by next August, he reasons, so why invest all that money?

"It was good back then. It's just getting worse every year now," he says of farming in the area. "We seriously want the other half of the Columbia Basin Project to come through. All emphasis on that, but we kind of need a quick fix."

While supporting the Columbia Basin Development League's movement to finish the second half of the Columbia Basin Project, a coalition formed earlier this year to create short-term and intermediate-term solutions to the declining levels of the Odessa Sub-Area Aquifer.

Pat Boss, principal consultant for the Odessa Aquifer Replenishment Coalition (OARC), agrees that completion of the project is the ultimate permanent fix. But, thinking optimistically, it's a fix that's still 20 to 40 years in the making.

"What are we going to do in the meantime while they're building the project?" he asked. "We've got farmers, irrigators, cities and landowners east of Moses Lake, east of Othello, that are going dry rapidly … We're at a point where we're probably two to three years away from a major catastrophe out there."

OARC is proposing an aquifer recharge, where water is taken from a source in the wintertime — in this scenario, it would be the Columbia River —moved to the area and injected into the ground. Boss said that existing wells can be used for these injections.

"They basically reverse the wells; instead of pumping water out through the wells, they put the water in through the wells," he said.

Aquifer recharge projects are also taking place in other locations in the state, in Idaho and in Asia, Boss said, calling it a "newfangled" undertaking of sorts.

"They're finding that this aquifer recharge technology is a more natural way of using the earth's physical storage capabilities," Boss said, noting that the undertaking doesn't cost a lot of money, using underground storage that is already present and doesn't require the building of new reservoirs. "We don't have the ability anymore to build these mega monster dams like Grand Coulee Dam."

OARC believes pumping water through the East Low Canal for an extra few months to deliver it to the injection sites would require no new construction, save for pipelines out to the wells, Boss said.

During the winter, the river is more full and there's less in-stream issues than during the summer irrigation season, which would not be impacted by the winter recharge.

It could even be a long-term solution, Boss said.

One downside is that if the water being injected into the ground is of poor quality, it needs to be filtered. Boss said the water coming from the river into Banks Lake and into the East Low Canal needs to be analyzed, but OARC believes that it is of a good quality.

The coalition estimates that the project could be done within the next four to five to seven years, Boss said, and would cost $40 to $50 million, including studies and the building of pipelines.

Boss said a number of CBDL members have found the proposal to be a good complement to their own work.

"It gives the CBDL enough latitude and enough time to fully do what they need to do, because they've got a very complex process set up," he said. "If we can buy them some time, to where they're not feeling under the gun, they will have the time to do this right and to get it done."

Boss said that the coalition is not interested in duplicating the CBDL's plans, but rather wants to complement them.

"I'm working with everybody who wants to go that way, because we need it," Stahl said, pointing out that many of his neighbors are feeling a similar negative impact from the declining levels. Some have only been able to grow wheat, and it's harder to make a living, he said.

"We need for it to happen; it's very important, because if all this area goes dry, it will cost a lot of jobs and there's a lot of money out here that goes towards the local communities," he said.

Boss echoed those comments, noting that a recent Washington State University study estimated that the value of potatoes from the impacted area was $600 million of the state's economy. Area processing plants all use a large amount of potatoes from the area for various reasons.

"If that area were to go dry suddenly, it's not a given that these processors could just go out and find a whole bunch of new ground to have growers plant potatoes," he said. "WSU said in their study that potentially, if that area goes dry, it could take one or two processors with it."

If that happens, 5,000 to 10,000 jobs could be indirectly affected, Boss added, as the processors buy supplies from companies. Add in the other crops grown in the area and there's probably a $1.2 billion impact on the state's economy, he said.

"If we lost $1.2 billion of economic impact out here, it's pretty damn sure Moses Lake and Othello and all these communities around here would be greatly affected," Boss said. "We've got a big challenge here, and it's not something that we have the luxury of waiting 50 years to finish."

Stahl agreed.

"We support strongly this second phase (of the project), but we need something now," he said. "Within the next five years, this is done. There's going to be no more water up here."