Demands on water may drain supply Officials fear aquifer can't sustain projects
By Karen Dorn Steele (Staff writer), Sunday, June 24, 2001
With a two-year drought and an untamed energy crisis in the West, the underground water supply for Spokane and Coeur d'Alene is under siege.
Spokane officials are waving caution flags as new peak-demand energy plants seek permits in Idaho to suck nearly 20 million more gallons from the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer each day to drive power turbines.
It's a classic environmental tradeoff, pitting the region's need for power versus a reliable water supply.
The vast aquifer flowing from Idaho through glacial gravel is considered Spokane's most precious natural resource.
Its abundance has often been taken for granted -- until now.
"If all these projects were to be built, it could be the equivalent of a third of Spokane's average daily use. The level of concern is rising here about water availability," said Lloyd Brewer, director of environmental programs for the city of Spokane.
Spokane officials warn that the aquifer, which provides 88 percent of all the ground water in Spokane County, is a finite resource. They also feel helpless because Idaho controls most of it.
Much of the water in the 119-square-mile aquifer "derives from recharge that occurs in Idaho," according to a 1996 report prepared for Spokane County planners.
Of the aquifer's daily total flow, 13.1 million gallons come from precipitation and 430 million gallons from watersheds in Idaho. Estimates of water that can be safely pumped ranges from 443 million gallons to 823 million gallons a day.
The report says the aquifer can meet Spokane's water needs until 2016 -- if per capita demand doesn't increase.
It also warns that usage in Spokane County, peaking at 311 million gallons a day in August, is nearly half of what can be safely withdrawn -- and says water rights issued in Washington and Idaho may already exceed the aquifer's safe yield.
The 1996 report didn't anticipate a cluster of new water-hungry power plants in Idaho. Two are proposed and two are permitted.
In the past four or five years, growing conflicts between Idaho and Washington over a basinwide cleanup of Idaho mining wastes has spilled over to aquifer planning, said Stan Miller, Spokane County's aquifer program manager.
"They consider us the `downstreamers,' and wish we'd go away," Miller said.
Idaho officials concede there's been little cooperation on water supply issues, although both states have used federal grants to help protect water quality in the aquifer.
It was designated a sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1978.
In 1986, Congress required a wellhead protection program and asked states to report on their pollution prevention efforts.
"We've had good coordination on water quality for years. But on water use, there's less," said Brian Painter of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
Spokane officials have been openly critical of Idaho, but haven't asked to meet with their Idaho counterparts to discuss the proposed new power plants, said Bob Haynes, regional water manager for the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
"If they are concerned, I'd think they'd give us a call. There's been no communication," he said.
The Rathdrum Prairie is ideal for the new plants because the aquifer offers abundant water and a natural-gas pipeline runs nearby, Haynes said.
"There may be larger questions of whether this is good for the community, either in Idaho or Washington," he said. "But solely for locating a power plant, it's as good as it can get."
The new water withdrawals also have serious implications for the Spokane River, which intermixes with the aquifer in the Spokane Valley, Miller said.
"The Idaho power plants will make inflow to Washington lower. Every drop we take out of the aquifer will diminish flow in the Spokane River," Miller said. The river is already stressed by overly high temperatures, PCBs and heavy metals pollution.
Adding to the cross-border problems, Idaho and Washington have entirely different systems of water rights.
Absent evidence that a new water use would curtail existing water rights or conflict with "local public interest," Idaho law says new water permits must be granted.
On the Rathdrum Prairie, water permits granted to power plants total 17 million gallons per day.
Avista has operated two natural-gas turbines on the Idaho prairie since 1995 that generate 160 megawatts of electricity.
In May, two other power companies, Newport Northwest LLC and Cogentrix Energy, applied for permits for an additional 12 million gallons a day.
And Idaho regulators are also reviewing a request for an additional 6.9 million gallons a day for North Idaho Power, a Cogentrix subsidiary, that would serve a new 800-megawatt plant.
In contrast, there's a near-moratorium on new water rights in Washington as the state responds to a Legislature-mandated review of Washington's dwindling water supplies.
The Washington Department of Ecology stopped issuing new water rights for the Spokane aquifer in 1994.
Idaho's new natural-gas fired power plants would have been denied water in Washington.
"If they'd applied here, we wouldn't have given them water rights. We'd say, `Get in line like everyone else,"' said John Covert, a hydrogeologist with the Washington Department of Ecology.
"Water is a finite resource, and with 5 million people in Washington state, it's getting more precious. There's a big statewide backlog in water rights because there's more demand than supply," Covert said.
So who owns the rights to the water flowing beneath our feet?
In Spokane County, the biggest water user by far is the city of Spokane.
The city has the right to 348 million gallons per day, but uses an average 63 million gallons daily -- five times more than the next-largest purveyor, the Consolidated Irrigation District of Greenacres.
No. 3 is Kaiser's Mead smelter, now idled during the regional power crisis, followed by several irrigation districts, smaller water suppliers and industries.
In North Idaho, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation holds the biggest water right, for the East Greenacres Irrigation District near Post Falls.
The district pumps up to 48 million gallons for irrigation and domestic use on a hot summer day, but uses only 1 million gallons a day in the winter, said Paul Baker, district manager.
The East Greenacres system serves 6,000 acres, with 1,400 domestic water supply hookups and 550 irrigators.
It is permitted to take up to 58.3 million gallons a day for irrigation and domestic use.
The Bureau of Reclamation also holds water rights for several smaller water systems near Hayden Lake and Dalton Gardens.
North Idaho's No. 2 water rights holder is the city of Coeur d'Alene, permitted to take 19.4 million gallons a day but averaging 8 million gallons daily.
It is followed by Kootenai Generation LLC, Newport Northwest's proposed 1,300 megawatt gas turbine plant on the Rathdrum Prairie; the Hayden Lake Irrigation District; and North Idaho Power LLC, the proposed 800-megawatt gas turbine plant on the Rathdrum Prairie.
North Idaho Power has obtained a permit for 6.9 million gallons a day, and has requested a second permit for the same amount, said Allen Beardslee, senior water resource agent at Idaho's Department of Water Resources.
For the first time, Washington planners are trying to add up all the water use in the aquifer and study the aquifer's impact on the Spokane River for a regional study due in 2005.
The data on water use in the aquifer will be available this year.
As part of that review, the planners will be asking more questions about the impact of the Idaho power plants on the river and the aquifer.
Washington is one of six states with laws requiring detailed study of the environmental impacts of large industrial projects.
Idaho doesn't require the same level of environmental review.
"We need to know what the new power plants will be doing with their wastewater. If it's drawn into the river in January and February, nobody will care. But if it's in the summer, when the river is 60 degrees, we'll have serious problems" because the wastewater is warm, Miller said.
"We simply don't have enough information yet," he said.
Karen Dorn Steele can be reached at 459-5462 or by e-mail at karend@spokesman.com.:
