Bureau holds Odessa update meeting

Information presented at ATEC Oct. 23

COLUMBIA BASIN - Next week residents get to hear the latest on groundwater in the Odessa area.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation offers a special study meeting Oct. 23 in Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building. The afternoon meeting begins at 1 p.m. and the evening meeting at 6 p.m. Both meetings will have the same presentations and information.

The bureau's Odessa Subarea Special Study is investigating replacing current groundwater use in the Odessa Subarea within Columbia Basin Project boundaries with surface water.

The bureau in 2006 completed a report recommending four preliminary alternatives to replace groundwater pumping in the area. The bureau spent the past year conducting appraisal-level investigations of the alternatives, examining their technical feasibility, identifying potential environmental and social issues and developing preliminary cost estimates for comparison.

"We spent the past year doing engineering analyses, refining them in terms of how many acres of groundwater-irrigated lands can we provide a replacement water supply to, what are the initial costs?" Study Manager Ellen Berggren explained.

The bureau calculates appraisal-level costs, which are based on using the best data available.

"There's a number of assumptions that go into those costs, so they're not adequate or appropriate to use to actually say, 'This is how much it's going to cost us to build this thing,'" Berggren said. "It gives you a ballpark figure and it allows you to make a relative comparison of the cost of the different alternatives."

From there, the bureau decides which alternatives should move forward and be examined through more comprehensive feasibility-level analyses, beginning in 2008.

Berggren said the main goal with the meeting is to share the study results with the public, but also garner feedback.

"We want the public to tell us what they think about these different alternatives and give us some feedback on what alternatives they think we should move forward in the feasibility," she said. "You don't study all four (alternatives,) the study would be enormous. You focus on the one or two that would make the most sense."

For more information, visit the Web site at www.usbr.gov/pn/ or contact Berggren at 208-378-5090 or e-mail StudyManager@pn.usbr.gov.