Palouse Basin Water Summit is a go
Held virtually in its 17th year, will address updates on water usage, water supply alternatives
The annual Palouse Basin Water Summit will be delivered virtually Thursday night because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but online viewers will still learn the status of the Palouse’s water supply and receive water conservation updates from city and university officials.
“We’re trying to make the best of the situation,” Palouse Basin Water Summit co-founder Jon Kimberling said. “This is such an important issue that we wanted to give community members a way to stay engaged and to stay informed.”
The 17th annual event, scheduled for 6-8 p.m. on the Palouse Basin Water Summit’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, will culminate with a 50-minute documentary film “Brave Blue World — A Perfect Storm for Water.” The documentary paints an optimistic picture of how humanity is successfully adopting new technology and innovations to fundamentally rethink how people manage water, according to a column by Kimberling and summit co-founder Paul Kimmell published in Tuesday’s Daily News.
Kimmell, who serves as regional business manager for Avista Corp., said the film is narrated by actor Liam Neeson. Actor Matt Damon, co-founder of global nonprofit organization water.org, is part of the documentary.
“It’s a great message (and) provides a lot of hope about all the technologies that are being developed and the work people are doing to solve the problem,” Kimberling said.
Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee Executive Manager Korey Woodley will present water usage numbers on the Palouse. Woodley said at last year’s summit that 2.37 billion gallons of groundwater were pumped in 2018 to meet water demand on the Palouse, 3.1 percent less than the amount pumped in 2017, and 13.6 percent less than in 1992 when the PBAC’s Groundwater Management Plan took effect.
While water usage continues to decline, the Grande Ronde Aquifer, the deeper of the two aquifers on the Palouse, is also declining at about 0.7 feet per year, Woodley said last year.
“A lot of the numbers are trending in the right direction so that’s all good, but it’s still not good enough,” Kimmell said.
Kimberling said the goal is to reach a point where the aquifers stop declining.
Robin Nimmer, a hydrogeologist from Alta Science and Engineering, Inc. in Moscow, will report on her work identifying and refining potential new water sources in the region.
Kimberling, who owns Kimberling Insurance, said about 300 people typically attend the summit each year at the Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Event Center in Pullman. Kimmell said, by and large, more than half of the summit’s audience is new every year, which is a success, he said.
Kimberling said the Palouse Basin Water Summit started after he and Kimmell attended a water conference in Boise. At the time, Kimberling was a Moscow City councilor and Kimmell was a Latah County commissioner.
“When I tell this story, I always say that we were on the plane on the way back (from Boise),” Kimberling said. “We were actually in a bar having an adult beverage and I just said, ‘Paul, we need to do this locally.’ ”
Kimberling said he believes the summit ignited interest and attention in water conservation from Moscow and Pullman and their residents. He said both cities have tremendous water conservation programs.
One of the most important messages of the summit is that everyone has a role in conserving water, whether it is taking shorter showers or implementing a landscape in their yard that requires little to no water, Kimbering said.
“We all can make a difference,” he said.
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.
