MOSES LAKE - The survival of the Columbia Basin Ground Water Management Area (GWMA) could be in question, as could the future of the groundwater itself.

The agency has provided groundwater planning for the Columbia Basin for more than 14 years, but may soon suffer a drought of government funding, according to GWMA Executive Director Paul Stoker.

Over the past several months Stoker has given presentations to city governments throughout Grant, Adams, Franklin and Lincoln counties, most recently visiting the Soap Lake City Council.

He explained the GWMA was originally formed by locally elected leaders of the four-county region in response to high levels of nitrate found in groundwater. The agency provides information and consulting services and has completed as many as 300 projects, Stoker said.

The GWMA has historically relied heavily on federal and state funding, but Stoker said these sources are becoming increasingly unreliable.

"Usually when groundwater management areas are created, an aquifer protection area is also created with an annual assessment of $5 to $10 per household to keep it going," Stoker said. "We didn't do that, and one of the problems we now have is that, because none of the citizens have put any money into this, the state and feds are saying, 'Well if the citizens don't want it that bad, then why should we pay into it?'"

Stoker said county commissioners will choose whether to put a proposed assessment on the ballot this fall. Details are still being discussed, but the assessments would likely be on a per-household or per-parcel plan.

When asked how other cities have responded to the proposed assessments, Stoker said there have been "no overt negatives" and many cities have given the idea a positive response.

"If we don't do this, then the future planning process evaporates, because the stuff that we have right now has been created by the world's foremost geologists, hydrogeologists and model builders," Stoker said, referring to one of the GWMA's biggest projects to date - a multi-million dollar map of groundwater across the four-county region. "We've created this large model and process and are ready to launch into finding solutions. Do we want to let the GWMA and all of this information go away?"

One Soap Lake resident asked Stoker why, in the event the GWMA did evaporate, their model wouldn't remain available for public use and planning.

"(The model) is very public, but unless you have the world's foremost PhD you can't use it for anything; it becomes useless," Stoker replied. "It's a 35 million cell model, and each cell is like an Excel spreadsheet."

'Worst case scenario'

Stoker said a startling fact has been revealed by the groundwater mapping process, which was conducted over the past seven years.

"As far as I know, pretty much everywhere in the four-county region, anywhere below about 300 to 400 feet there is no rechargeable water," he said. "Any well that is below that level is pumping water that has not been recharged since the ice ages, 10,000 to 25,000 years ago."

He unveiled what he called a "worst case scenario" report prepared for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in response to questions surrounding the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project - namely, what are the options for the 25 municipalities surrounding the Columbia River Basalt aquifer system when - or if - they lose their potable water supply?

Water levels in deep basalt wells throughout the region are steadily deteriorating, Stoker said, in some places more drastically than others. For instance, the aquifer area east of Moses Lake and toward Connell is being aggressively pumped out.

"Those particular wells have been failing since 1985 and their attempts to regenerate the wells have caused them to go as deep as 3,000 feet for water," Stoker said. "They're now really in an economic condition where they can't go any deeper and their wells are failing. The expectation is that they will be in full failure for the entire area within about ten years."

Stoker highlighted three potential solutions to the problem.

Drilling further down is an option, he said, although most deep well water is not good to drink and needs to be processed through a water treatment plant, which can be very expensive.

Cities could instead drill more wells and mine the shallow water, but yield would decrease and the water would still need to be treated due to agricultural nitrogen contamination, he said.

The third alternative is to tap into surface water, such as Moses Lake, although Stoker pointed out this too would require costly water treatment.

"This is a worst case scenario," Stoker reiterated. "If you don't do anything else in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, depending on your time frame, you will be faced with these kinds of options."

The GWMA will release a final report in June assessing the condition of the municipal wells of the 25 cities in the four-county region, which include Ephrata, George, Moses Lake, Othello, Quincy, Royal City, Soap Lake, Warden and others.

The report will determine for each community the water quality and age, where it's coming from, how long it's likely to last and what options there are heading into the future.

"One of the reasons we're going around to all the cities is to hand out the first report and tell you life is really bad," Stoker said. "But the second thing I'm doing here is telling you to please don't do anything until at least June, because then we'll have a full analysis of what your wells look like and what you're facing."

For more information visit www.cbgwma.org or call 509-488-3409.