More than a third of last week's Watershed Resource Inventory Area meeting in White Salmon was devoted to whether the committee would pay to have the level of groundwater in wells around Condit Dam tested. But in the end, no decision was reached.
The watershed group is charged with creating a plan for water management in a geographic area that stretches from Rock Creek in Skamania County to Major Creek in Klickitat County. The plan is supposed to be in place by June 30, 2005.
Jerry Smith, who serves on the WIRA board as a representative of the Husum-BZ Corner Community Council, said he would like to see groundwater levels from six wells near Condit Dam taken quarterly or semi-annually for "baseline monitoring."
Smith explained that many homeowners believe the aquifer level will decline if Northwestern Lake is drained if and when the dam is removed. The lake is the reservoir created behind Condit Dam.
The total cost for one year of quarterly well testing was pegged at $6,975.
Some on the committee questioned the wisdom of spending public money to do the study, noting that if Condit Dam is removed by owner PacifiCorp, it would be PacifiCorp's responsibility to do these studies.
"This is one of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's requirements," said Tim Counihan, who represents the Underwood Community Council. "It is PacifiCorp's responsibility to mitigate adverse effects [of dam removal]."
Smith said it is PacifiCorp's responsibility, but he pointed out that the so-called "Settlement Agreement" for dam removal has a $17 million cap on what PacifiCorp will spend for mitigations. The cap might not be enough to address losses in the event draining the reservoir impacts wells.
Steve Stampfli, who represents the White Salmon Watershed Management Committee, said he disagreed with the concept of spending watershed resource funds to monitor wells around the dam.
"I think before any money is expended, we need to approach PacifiCorp," he explained. "PacifiCorp has not fully evaluated the impact on the wells. So there is a high probability they'll have to do this. That's the kind of thing they have to do."
Mark Yinger, head of Mark Yinger Associates in Parkdale, Ore., the subcontractor who would do the well study, said if he was going to do quarterly studies, he needed to move swiftly.
"Since there are preliminary steps (selecting wells and gaining landowners' permission) that need to occur before monitoring could begin, we would not expect to complete the first round of monitoring until June 2004," explained Yinger in a memo to the WIRA committee. "As we have discussed, groundwater level monitoring needs to occur over multiple years to account for annual and seasonal difference."
Some committee members questioned whether there was any point in gathering the data.
"Do we want to embark on a plan where if it is not carried out every year, then the utility of the data is in question?" said Bengt Coffin, a representative of the U.S. Forest Service.
"I think we're protecting the water rights of property owners," Smith said.
"My view is, there is a better use for the money than for this group to divert funds to this purpose. This is PacifiCorp's job and I question spending public money on it. This seems unusual to me," said Coffin.
"PacifiCorp will be happy to hear that," Smith responded.
Smith said the study would provide "a baseline of information" of the impact on area wells.
"One year is pretty limited for a baseline," said Jim White, representing the Underwood Conservation District. "One year could be dry, one year could be wet. You could have several dry or wet years. No one could take this information and draw any conclusions."
Other committee members backed Smith's call to test the well levels.
"It provides some comparison," said Rick Graves, a citizen representing Klickitat County.
"I think it's very important this monitoring be done," said George Mersereau, a citizen-at-large representative.
"The dam may not be coming out, but we as a planning unit ought to know the status of the resources that will have a significant impact on our WIRA," added Jim Rhoads, an alternate representing Klickitat County.
Charly Boyd, a planner with the Skamania County Planning Department and a facilitator of the WIRA meetings, said the group needed to make a decision.
"You've talked about this for two months, but have not made a decision. You need to make a decision tonight," Boyd said. "If it's not approved tonight it will be too late [for quarterly testing]."
However, Smith called for a month's delay in making the decision, and the committee put the decision off until April.
Commented