Groundwater decline examined at forum

MOSES LAKE — Groundwater supplies feeding residential and city wells in the four counties of the Columbia Basin Groundwater Management Area (GWMA) are declining, according to GWMA.

In the 1960s, there was 60 million acre feet of water available. Now there’s between 10 and 20 million acre feet left in Grant, Adams, Lincoln and Franklin counties.

But there may be solutions.

The idea of passive rehydration was shared by Lincoln County Commissioner Dennis Bly Tuesday during the GWMA’s Groundwater Forum. About 75 people attended.

Here’s how it works: water would be placed in a dry lake bed and pumped underground with the help of a pumping station.

Dry lake beds can be found in the Lake Creek System of Lincoln County.

That’s where, in 1997, then-dry Bob’s Lake and Pacific Lake were filled with surface water drainage from a one-time spring runoff event triggered by extra precipitation. The lakes later dried up.

At the time, area wells responded positively to the extra water in the lakes, showing there was a hydrogeologic connection between the wells and the lakes.

Passive rehydration would benefit deep well irrigators in the Odessa area, the cities of Warden, Moses Lake, Othello and Connell, domestic groundwater users, the habitat, recreational users and Eastern Washington’s economy.

A feasibility study to find any flaws is underway.

If the project is possible, they will find a way to obtain a water permit, Bly said.

John Porcello, a senior hydrologist with GSI Water Solutions, Inc., said because of elevation differences that came after the Ice Age, water cannot naturally move from the Columbia River system into Lincoln County.

As more people settled in the area, talk followed about less water in the coulee systems being available and wells being dug deeper.

The climate is arid in the GWMA and there’s not much opportunity for water recharge.

Some recharge does occur in the Blue Mountains of southeast Washington and northeast Oregon, but does not happen as much farther north in the Columbia Basin.

Paul Stoker, GWMA executive director, said the only sustainable source of water is Lake Roosevelt, the dammed portion of the Columbia River.

“If you’re not connected to that, you’ll run out of water,” Stoker said. “That’s an issue.”