It's time to fix deplorable groundwater conditions

"What we've got here is
failure to communicate!"

-- From the 1967 movie "Cool Hand Luke"

One disturbing conclusion to draw from this newspaper's recent series, "Hidden wells, dirty water" is that there is -- to put it mildly -- a glaring lack of dialogue among various agencies and officials charged with monitoring the quality of groundwater in the Yakima Valley.

As a result, some parts of the Valley are awash with polluted wells, creating a health problem that is simply unacceptable.

At the same time, we were struck by an underlying sense of naiveté on the part of some landowners who apparently rely too much on faith in government regulation and perhaps not enough in individual initiative to monitor the quality of their well water.

The Lower Valley has long been noted for old, shallow wells that are prone to seepage pollution. As agriculture diversity and intensity have increased over the years -- particularly Confined Animal Feeding Operations such as dairies and feedlots -- so has fecal and nitrate penetration of shallow drinking water.

CAFOs are highly visible targets when it comes to looking for something to blame for polluted wells. The sheer volume of animal wastes they produce and the logistics of disposing of that waste should make them main contenders for a high degree of regulation and oversight, particularly surface and ground water monitoring, in any area in which they operate. That's a no- brainer.

But are new wells or other remedial action the responsibility of government (meaning taxpayers), or property owners? Surely. the latter must share in responsibility even if the low-income residents who are hardest hit by the problems and costs that come with bad wells will most likely need some kind of financial assistance.

Or, better yet: It's time to move away from old, individual -- and unregulated -- wells to more community wells that in turn come under more regulation. That's not a solution for isolated homes or farms, but for many others it may be.

That will be an ongoing debate. In the meantime, the regulatory network must be overhauled and given meaning.

What we found alarming about the findings is the lack of adequate licensing, inspection, oversight and, above all, coordinated regulation of wells.

One of the most telling quotes of the series was from Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology, as he talked about the shared jurisdiction of his agency and the state Department of Agriculture for groundwater regulation:

"Both agencies sort of assume the other is going to take care of things and they don't. We clearly need to finish this job or move it all back to one agency. I don't care who has it but I'm frustrated by this middle position. We've stalled out."

What an indictment of agencies charged with critical regulatory duties linked to public health and environmental protection.

Clearly, it's time for an extreme makeover of the regulatory network, and good models for public, private and tribal cooperative initiatives can be found in the Columbia Basin and Walla Walla.

In the basin, similar concerns about groundwater ultimately led to creation of a Groundwater Management Area, which by law requires local management. Certified by the state in 2001, the groundwater management area now includes Grant, Adams, Franklin and Lincoln counties -- about 8,000 square miles of the Columbia Basin -- and operates on a budget of about $2.5 million in local, state and federal funds.

Local businesses and farms don't pay into the groundwater management area, but what a great idea for a clearinghouse that can coordinate efforts such as monitoring the effects of fertilizers on groundwater.

The Walla Walla Watershed Alliance is a similar joint effort to address the broad range of water, environmental and community development issues in the Walla Walla River watershed. It's a two-state (Washington and Oregon) nonprofit umbrella agency that includes local and state government and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Just getting all the parties to the same table to discuss common concerns and issues has a lot going for it in this day and age.

In the earlier developmental days of the Yakima Valley, groundwater was pretty easy to take for granted -- perhaps because it's not visible like the surface water in streams and rivers. In those slower times, you built a house or farm and dug a well or wells for drinking and/or irrigation.

But times have changed, and so has the landscape of the Valley. It's time for new thinking and new direction to combat the growing problem of polluted wells. That requires individuals and all appropriate public and private sectors with a stake in proper management and environmental considerations to work together toward solutions. No one should be allowed to sit on the sidelines and pout -- and then later file suit.

What we need here is the ability to communicate.

We need a meaningful system of oversight, regulation and monitoring of groundwater quality. We need a plan to aggressively address the deplorable conditions found in "Hidden wells, dirty water." (Read the series online at www.yakimaherald.com.)

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.