Spokane's aquifer doing OK — for now

SPOKANE VALLEY — A new report found that the aquifer providing drinking water to the Spokane area and parts of north Idaho has not yet reached its limits, delaying any showdown over the precious resource, the U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday.

The report is the result of a four-year, $3.5 million study of the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 500,000 people in Spokane County in Washington and in Bonner and Kootenai counties in Idaho.

The study was done to determine whether population and industrial growth in the area was draining the underground water supply faster than it could be replenished.

"We have a scientifically defensible, agreed-upon body of data that both states have endorsed," said Jani Gilbert, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Ecology.

The report will allow Idaho and Washington to work together in deciding which projects get water rights, she said.

"There's not a lot of excuse to make bad water decisions in the future," Gilbert said.

Study results were discussed at a Spokane Valley meeting that began Tuesday and will conclude today.

The idea for the study came in 2001, when Idaho got requests for 14 million gallons of water a day for new electrical-generation plants on the Rathdrum Prairie east of Spokane.

It became apparent that the region did not have the data to determine the limits of the shared aquifer.

Research showed that the aquifer is not being drained faster than it can replenish itself and that the groundwater varies widely in how fast it moves on its downhill slide from Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho toward the Spokane River.

Researchers also created a complicated computer program that will allow them to estimate how new wells proposed for the aquifer might affect other wells in the area.

Rachael Paschal Osborn, a Spokane attorney and water activist, said the study provided good information but broke little new ground and will not by itself end water disputes.

"Idaho and Washington are not yet talking to each other about how to jointly divide and manage the aquifer," she said.