Othello teams up with partners to work on improving water storage permitting process

OTHELLO — Othello city officials will be working with a coalition of regional partners to make it easier to work on – and finish – projects to find and build additional water sources.  

The city is working on a project to use surface water from the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District system to reduce demand on the city’s underground aquifer and put water back into the aquifer. Mayor Shawn Logan said that project has taken a very long time.  

“The city of Othello has been involved in an (Aquifer Storage and Recovery) project for the last eight years. A lot of the reason it’s taken so long is that the steps in (state regulations) are very subjective,” Logan said. “So the different agencies, specifically the Department of Ecology and the Department of Health, don’t have a firm guideline. They can interpret what are the steps to go from starting a project to finishing it.” 

Logan said that’s dramatically slowed down Othello’s project. 

“We’re now starting our ninth year on this. And it really shouldn’t take you more than three years, four years at the most. Probably even two years,” he said.  

“We are getting closer, but we’re probably at least three years into the future before we finish it. If you look at this from start to finish, it’s going take us 12 years,” he added. 

A coalition has been formed to find ways to streamline the process. The Columbia Basin Sustainable Water Coalition is supported by the Lincoln County Conservation District. 

The coalition is working with Landau Associates, an environmental engineering firm, to work on recommendations that eventually will go to the Washington Legislature. 

Ben Lee of Landau Associates said Washington makes it difficult to set up an aquifer storage and reuse project.  

“The permitting program for ASR in Washington appears to be – abnormally, I guess I would say – difficult, lengthy and costly,” Lee said.  

As a result, counties and municipalities are not pursuing those projects, he said. 

“There’s a lot of interest in ASR in Washington state but only about seven active permitted projects throughout the state,” he said.  

He contrasted that with the situation in Oregon, where about 20 projects are under development. The process in Oregon is less complicated and costly, he said. 

The goal is to start a research group that would look for ways to improve Washington’s process, he said. Their findings would be submitted to the Washington Legislature. 

The Othello City Council voted to join the coalition at a cost of $2,500. During the discussion council member John Lallas asked why the process was so complicated. 

Lee said that right now, three different offices within DOE are managing the application and implementation process. That’s separate from DOH. 

“They each have their own permitting requirements,” Lee said. “And they all have to funnel together and combine.”  

In addition, there are stringent conditions on water quality; Washington regulators also have conditions on how much water can be used. It's important for the state to oversee water quality, Lee said, but Washington regulations make the whole process prohibitively expensive for many cities.  

“Individual agency staff at Ecology and Health are all for this,” Lee said. “They’re very positive for getting more streamlined regulations in place.”