Groundwater management area next step in cleaning up polluted wells

YAKIMA, Wash. -- County commissioners have taken another step toward addressing well water pollution in the Lower Yakima Valley.

Commissioners on Tuesday moved toward creating a groundwater management area -- a designation for a place where contaminates have been found and where plans are locally developed to reduce existing, and prevent future, pollution.

By approving a contract with the state Department of Ecology, the county will get a $98,000 grant to hire a hydrogeologist, define area boundaries and establish the best ways to manage pollution sources and carry out enforcement.

"We are going after it for the long haul," county Public Services Director Vern Redifer said.

Management areas typically don't follow jurisdictional boundaries and may include parts of Benton County and the Yakama reservation.

After years of inaction on private well pollution from nitrates and bacteria, local, state, tribal and federal officials are working on the problem that affects an unknown number of mostly lower-income rural residents.

Estimates suggest 20 percent of some 30,000 private wells in the Lower Valley have elevated levels of nitrates and bacteria.

Samples taken from 330 wells this spring found 21 percent had nitrate levels that exceed the federal drinking water standards.

Action on the problem was prompted by a 2008 series of stories in the Yakima Herald-Republic entitled "Hidden Wells, Dirty Water."

County Commissioner Rand Elliott, the county lead on the groundwater issue, said the county believes local leadership is best equipped to deal with the problem.

Nitrates, a potential health hazard, can come from human waste and crop fertilizer. Manure from cows also is believed to be a major source in the Lower Valley.

Commissioner Kevin Bouchey, a Toppenish-area farmer, urged that the dairy industry not be the primary focus. He pointed to what he called "legacy" uses, the application of nitrogen fertilizer when sugar beets were once produced in the Valley.

"Nitrogen was dirt cheap and applied liberally. We have to look to past practices that contributed to this," he said, adding that septic tanks and poorly constructed water wells also play a role.

Commission Chairman Mike Leita urged the public to be patient with a problem that has no short-term solution.

"We want to have results. Results will be achieved in this process," he said. "Where this path leads us only time will tell."

Earlier this year, state lawmakers approved $400,000 to purchase water filtration systems for Lower Valley residents whose water is contaminated.

Redifer said the county is close to completing plans to begin distributing those systems.

Eligible residents will soon receive letters outlining the program, he said.

If created, a local groundwater management area would not be the first in the state. In 2001, the state certified one covering about 8,000 square miles of the Columbia Basin in Grant, Adams, Franklin and Lincoln counties, where nitrates have been a problem for groundwater.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.