Letter to the Editor: Support urged for GWMA funding sources

In the Columbia Basin we are dependent on groundwater to provide over 90% of our drinking water and over 25% of the irrigated farming. The problem is that the deep basalt aquifers that provide our water supply contain ancient water and are not being recharged (see video http://www.youtube. com/watch?v =2cFOYvtJejw).

The cities and towns in the Columbia Basin will soon receive a report of 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 groundwater, and figuring out how the groundwater system works. Most people would agree that a reliable understanding of our groundwater conditions is essentials for us to make good decisions about how, and where, we spend our scarce public and private capital for water.

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 groundwater 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 groundwater 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 then to pass a ballot measure.

Bill Schlagel

Othello

For building permits (see RCW 19.27.097 Building permit application -- Evidence of adequate water supply),

For land divisions (see RCW 58.17.110 Factors to be considered for approval and disapproval of subdivisions), and

For water right transfers (see RCW 90.80.070 (4) In making its record of decision, the water conservancy board must consider among other things whether the proposed transfer can be made without detriment or injury to existing water rights).