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The City of Kennewick currently treats water from the Columbia River to supply its residents with drinking water. In response to increasing regulatory pressures under the Surface Water Treatment Rule and increasing summer water demands, Kennewick funded an Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) feasibility report in October 2005. The goal of the study was to determine the feasibility of aquifer storage to provide source redundancy and reduce summer demands on the water treatment plant. | ||
| The report identified that injection of water into a basalt aquifer
at the south end of the city had the potential to hold approximately
318 acre-feet of water with less than ten percent leakage back to
the river. The capacity of the ASR system is not known at this time,
but could be in the range of 300-400 acre feet or more. How much of
this stored water is retrievable is open to question, since many of
the physical characteristics of the aquifer used to model system
recoveries were assumed. A planned pilot test of the ASR system will
answer most of these questions. |
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| Kennewick would divert and treat water in winter months, when water
is most available and the city’s treatment plant has the greatest
surplus capacity, then pump the water to two injection wells and
store it for later use in the aquifer. The city would pump the water
into the distribution system in the summer for municipal supply,
while an equal amount of water would remain in the Columbia River.
(see
diagram) In 2008 Ecology allocated $1 million to help fund a pilot for this project. The pilot will be funded and conducted in two phases. In the first phase, Ecology will spend $200,000 on testing to determine if the aquifer is capable of meeting or exceeding its projected capacity. If the project passes that test, the remaining $800,000 will be used to fund full construction in the second phase. In exchange for funding and following successful construction and operation of the facility, Ecology will manage the water stored (proportionate to funding under the Program) according to the statutory formula of two-thirds for out-of-stream uses and one-third for instream uses. |
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July 18, 2008 - Governor Gregoire announces major water supply projects for Tri-Cities area
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
