Watershed report sheds light on groundwater concerns

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A groundbreaking effort to determine why nitrates and other contaminants are polluting many Lower Yakima Valley wells is being planned by a group of government agencies.

Plans for a water-sampling program are contained in a draft report that culminates a yearlong effort by the agencies to address the groundwater problem.

The details of the program -- when it will start, who will conduct it, where the samples will be taken and how the effort will be paid for -- are yet to be worked out. But some answers could come later this month at a public meeting in Granger called by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA is working with a group of local, state and federal agencies that came together after the Yakima Herald-Republic published a series of reports in October 2008 about the extent of well contamination in rural parts of the Yakima Valley.

The report relies on four studies of contaminants conducted between 1990 and 2008 in the Lower Yakima Valley and presents several options for reducing the contamination, including a new public entity to carry out water-quality improvement measures.

But there are no conclusive recommendations about which of those measures to adopt, and the report's authors say their effort is just beginning.

"This report is designed to be the foundation from which recommendations and strategies can be developed," it states.

Many residents believe that dairy practices are the biggest contributors to the nitrate problem both through their practice of storing manure in unlined lagoons, or ponds, and spraying liquid manure and fertilizer through irrigation systems on crops such as hay and silage.

The report doesn't single out agricultural practices or dairies, noting that contaminants can enter the groundwater through poorly constructed, shallow wells.

But it does reference a recent summary of data collected by the Roza and Sunnyside Valley irrigation districts showing high levels of nitrogen at one particular site northeast of Sunnyside.

The data show that water from the Sulphur Creek wasteway, a manmade structure that handles operational spills from a major Lower Valley irrigation canal, contained more nitrogen per acre than three other comparably sized basins. The other basins are in Moses Lake, Quincy-Pasco and Nevada. The wasteway returns water to the Yakima River.

In addition, the report notes that a recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey showed that most reaches of the lower Yakima River are eutrophic, which means they contain excessive levels of nutrients, namely nitrogen, which leads to big blooms of algae and poor water quality.

Nitrates, a form of nitrogen, are an odorless compound found in soil and water that can exceed safe levels by leaching into aquifers. Manure is rich in nitrates, as is commercial fertilizer. Nitrates also often indicate the presence of other contaminants, such as bacteria and pesticides.

The report was signed by Vern Redifer, Yakima County director of public services; Tom Tebb, Ecology's regional director in Yakima; Ginny Stern, a hydrogeologist with the Health Department in Olympia; Jerry Buendel, assistant director of food safety and consumer services at the Agriculture Department in Olympia; and Marie Jennings, drinking water manager with EPA in Seattle.

EPA brought together the state Departments of Ecology, Agriculture and Health and Yakima County public services in an effort to solve the problem, which was raised by the Herald-Republic stories.

The stories detailed government's failure to remedy -- or even examine -- long-standing and documented problems of nitrates contaminating private residential wells. Most of the rural residents relying on well water are Latino farm workers and their families who can't afford to dig deeper wells or buy expensive filtration systems.

The report cites the series, saying it "examined a long history of regulatory confusion and inaction in connection with groundwater contamination affecting public and private drinking water wells primarily in the Lower Yakima Valley."

Until now, there has been no widespread effort to study the extent of contamination or its causes, measure health effects or warn tens of thousands of well users, including many low-income Latino farm workers living in rural communities.

The Health Department took the most immediate steps last winter by conducting public workshops for residents on how to test their well water and what steps to take if they found a problem.

* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 509-577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

WHAT: Public meeting on Lower Yakima Valley groundwater.

WHEN: Oct. 21.

WHERE: Radio KDNA, 121 Sunnyside Ave., Granger.

MORE INFO: E-mail Ryan Anderson of the Department of Ecology at rand@ecy.wa.gov.

Report highlights

* About 12 percent of domestic well users in the Lower Valley are exposed to nitrate levels that exceed health standards; 21 percent of wells have elevated levels.

* Bacteria have been detected in 19 percent of wells.

* The Lower Valley is home to 61 dairies with 290,000 animals that produced 26 million pounds of manure in 2008.

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