Ground water management area

Commissioners to vote on funding

In the Columbia Basin, we are dependent on groundwater to provide over 90 percent of our drinking water and over 25 percent of the irrigated farming. The problem is the deep basalt aquifers that provide our water supply is ancient water, and is not being recharged (see video).

The cities and towns in the Columbia Basin will soon receive a report on their groundwater conditions and future water supply. As a former Adams County commissioner, irrigation supplier, orchardist, and member of the Columbia Basin Ground Water Management Area (GWMA) Administrative Board, I urge people to recognize the serious challenge we face.

The good news to this story is the GWMA, which has spent the past 15 years studying and mapping the geology and ground water, and figuring out how the ground water system works. Most people would agree that a reliable understanding of our ground water conditions is essential for us to make good decisions about how, and where, we spend our scarce public and private capital for water supply.

One should ask, without the GWMA team and database, how will local governments determine water availability and water supply for building permits, land divisions, and water right transfers? These all require a reliable database and comprehensive understanding of the ground water resource. What about Ecology? The Eastern Region Office, Water Resources division does not have the manpower, budget or authority to micromanage this massive, complex and compartmentalized ground water system.

Your county commissioners will soon decide whether or not to have a public vote on funding the GWMA for 10 years. I urge them, and you, to support the GWMA now before one morning nothing comes out your water tap; it'll be too late them to pass a ballot measure.

Bill Schlagel

Othello