Got water? Good to drink?
Expo 50 H20 Water Symposium Leads the Conversation
The blessings of our region’s Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie sole source aquifer has historically provided our communities the good news answer of “YES.” Over time, our forefathers drilled wells in good locations and fortified them with land use, education, and other protection measures. Water rights administered by Idaho and Washington provide the sideboards on allocation, and in Washington an in-stream flow rule assures that use of the aquifer doesn’t come at the cost of water flows in the Spokane River.
Looking forward, however, maintaining the good-news answer of YES faces serious challenges. John Porcello, a Principal Groundwater Hydrologist for GSI Water Solutions, will provide a big-picture overview of what’s occurring and who’s doing what regionally.
Climate change, population growth and land-use patterns will, for instance, likely affect the availability of groundwater levels at wells. “That’s a nice way of saying we need to make sure water supply to customers isn’t interrupted because the right wells, pumps and pipes to deliver it aren’t there,” said Porcello. New contamination risks from “forever chemicals” and other sources pose a parallel water quality risk to assuring resiliency in municipal groundwater supplies.
To get a handle on these complex dynamics and develop an infrastructure plan for the decades to come, GSI has enhanced groundwater flow models created by the City of Spokane and the Spokane Aquifer Joint Board (SAJB). SAJB’s twenty one members (including the City of Spokane) pump groundwater from individual wells or multi-well wellfields at over 120 locations in the Washington portion of the aquifer. GSI is now conducting a modeling update and study of possible future climate impacts on municipal supply wells on behalf of each of the twenty one SAJB water purveyors, who together provide safe, clean drinking water to over 500,000 people.
For example, updated water data and projections for future hydrologic conditions late into the century will be combined with new groundwater modeling software. This will create a highly flexible and adaptable version of the numerical ground flow models that have been in use to date. Said Porcello, “It allows us to answer questions like how climate change may affect our ability to supply water, whether to build new or deeper wells, how best to institute new water quality measures to address increases in risk, or how to better value what can be achieved through conservation (particularly if an emergency were to arise, such as a contamination event). That’s key to making future investments and land use decisions.”
Importantly, this new effort builds on both the seminal 2007 USGS modeling effort led by Washington and Idaho as well as water-system-focused groundwater models that Porcello has constructed and applied for the City of Spokane and the SAJB since the mid-1990s. GSI’s current study for SAJB will also build on a similar climate-focused modeling exercise that was just recently completed for the City of Spokane’s groundwater supply sources.
At the same time, the Idaho Washington Aquifer Collaborative (IWAC) is developing a proposal focused on Kootenai County water quality and supply needs. Said Hanson, SAJB Program Manager, “Local water suppliers are taking the lead because their customers depend on them to provide safe, clean, affordable, and reliable water.”
Porcello’s presentation, followed by on-the-ground updates from the City of Spokane, IWAC, SAJB and Spokane County will give essential perspective to the simple questions: Got water? Good to Drink?
Please join us for this important conversation. Register Now