U.S. Water News Online
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Avista Corp. has withdrawn its request to pump 2.8 million gallons of water per day out of the beleaguered aquifer that serves the Spokane area, saying it will find other ways to produce more electricity for the growing region.
In 2002, Avista and two other utilities proposed electrical generating plants that would require millions of gallons a day of water from the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for about 500,000 people.
Environmental groups vehemently objected on the grounds the withdrawals might deplete the resource, and Congress appropriated money to study how much water was in the aquifer. The proposals by the two other utilities were ultimately denied by Idaho regulators.
Avista said a new review of its future power needs indicated the utility could find enough electricity without building a new plant on the Rathdrum Prairie, on the Idaho-Washington border.
Avista spokeswoman Catherine Markson said Monday the company's recent purchase of 50 percent of the output of the Coyote Springs 2 power plant in Boardman, Ore., will meet many of its future needs.
Avista also plans to rely on wind, coal, biomass, expansion of existing plants and conservation to produce about 850 additional megawatts of power over the next 20 years, she said.
In a joint statement, the local Sierra Club, Upper Columbia River Group and the Idaho Conservation League hailed the decision.
"We applaud Avista's decision to withdraw this proposal," said Rachael Paschal Osborn, an attorney representing the Sierra Club and ICL. "Our aquifer is too precious a resource to waste on a speculative power plant proposal."
The proposal called for taking 2.88 million gallons per day of water from the aquifer, enough water to irrigate 1,000 acres of land. Operation of the power plant would have resulted in total evaporation of the water.
In 2002, the Idaho Department of Water Resources struck down two similar power plant proposals on the Rathdrum Prairie for failing to adequately address "conservation of water" as required by Idaho law.
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