Watershed Planning

Perspectives from an Outsider

Alan Miller, P.E.

Administrator

Hayden Lake Irrigation District

Idaho Perspectives

Rathdrum Prairie Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan

• Sponsor: Idaho Water Resource Board

• Purpose: Provide reliable source of water projecting 50 years.

• Process: established Advisory Committee– Plan drafted over 1 year period– Currently open for public comment– Future Adoption and Implementation

RP CAMP Findings

• Idaho – – Stable water supply for 50 year planning horizon– Anticipate stable water quality

• There are existing pockets of Arsenic

• Washington –– Current issues regarding timing and location – Study to appropriate water from northern reaches of

the aquifer

RP CAMP Unknowns• Climate

– Is this aquifer system a storage type or flow through type? How would climate change affect the aquifer system? Projections call for wetter warmer winters, earlier runoff and reduced summer precipitation.

• Forest Practices– Removal of vegetative cover may move the

hydrograph to earlier runoff and reduced soil storage.

• Lake Coeur d’Alene– Change in the lake from aerobic to anaerobic could

release metals from the lake bottom sediments

Washington Perspectives

Aquifer Planning in Washington

• Washington Planning– Watershed Planning Act (RCW 90.82)

• Water Resource Inventory Area (WIRA)– WIRA 55/57 Middle Spokane River completed 2005

• Identify Future Water Needs• Determine if Sufficient Water Exists• Identify Management Strategies to Achieve Needs

• WIRA 55/57 – Currently in the implementation stage

The Region Wide Approach

Compare and Contrast

• Planning in both states recognizes– Need for adequate water supplies– Change in historical use

– Agriculture to Suburban / Urban Residential Use

• Planning differs in each state– Idaho is ground water focus

• Planning is top down but local based

– Washington is Spokane River focus • Planning is bottom Up

Human Dimension• Why Plan?

– To avoid something

• Differences in planning and focus – Requires understanding of others perspective

• Political– Washington tends to follow perspective found

west of the Cascades– Idaho tends to follow perspective found in the

dryer southern portion

Human Dimension• How do we begin managing the aquifer

system on a cooperative region wide basis? – we recognize the resource as a shared

resource not an owned resource as western water law would imply

– An approach that is interdependent, not independent

– Our challenges ahead will be people based, not water based.

• Not due to growth, but due to attitudes and approach

The Other Reason to Plan

Thank you