Steve Robischon, Executive Director PBAC

Steve Robischon, Executive Director Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee was the guest speaker at the Idaho Washington Aquifer Collaborative on 12/9/14.

The Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee (PBAC) was formed in 1967 because of declining groundwater levels in municipal wells. The Palouse groundwater basin is the sole source of water for over 50,000 residents of Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID and outlying areas in both Whitman County (WA) and Latah County (ID). PBAC is a multi-jurisdictional, cooperative group with the mission of ensuring a safe and sustainable supply of water for the future. Download PDF Slides 1-40 Slides 41-80

Steve Robischon was asked to address the lessons learned by PBAC that might assist in the long term success of IWAC. With great humor and wisdom, Steve said he would share lessons that had been learned and re-learned many times by PBAC and “hopefully” would assist IWAC. Steve’s presentation included a look at the history, geology, hydrology, water law and modeling of the Palouse basin water conditions from 1882 to the present as well as the economic, social and political considerations that shaped the region’s decisions. Defining events in Moscow, Idaho and Pullman Washington were included in Steve’s very informative talk using archived newspaper accounts, postcards, photos, letters, state statutes, model diagrams, proposed water projects and the “1992 Ground Water Management Plan”.

The lessons learned and re-learned that Steve highlighted were:

  1. Encourage Adaptive Management – i.e., check models against reality and revise the models when they don’t match what is actually occurring based on measurable data.
  2. Keep the community informed. Solicit community opinions about issues under discussion and get them on board.
  3. Leverage outside money from IDWR, Ecology and other sources wherever possible
  4. Managing goals requires numbers to know if the plan is working.
  5. The Palouse basin community can’t conserve its way out of a declining aquifer. Other solutions, in addition to using less water, need to be considered such as, finding new sources of surface water and using reclaimed water.

PBAC is currently creating a menu of options for addressing the declining aquifer. They are collecting all existing studies and proposed water projects and developing a uniform format that includes legal considerations, cost, risks, feasibility, and the pros and cons for each project.