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Title

Feasibility Study to Mitigate Groundwater Impacts through Storage in Skagit Basin

 
Publication number Date Published
16-11-002December 2016
VIEW NOW Feasibility Study to Mitigate Groundwater Impacts through Storage in Skagit Basin (Number of pages: 70) (Publication Size: 3705KB)




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Author(s) Barbara Anderson, Rebecca Inman summarizing Michael Brady, et al.
Description This report has been prepared to fulfill the requirements of Engrossed Senate Bill 6589, passed by the 2016 Legislature. That bill requires Ecology to conduct a study to examine the feasibility of using “effectively sized water storage to recharge the Skagit river basin when needed to meet minimum instream flows and provide non-interruptible water resources to users of permit exempt wells within the Skagit river basin.”

Brief Summary of Report Contents
Ecology contracted with Washington State University (WSU) School of Economic Sciences to conduct the feasibility study. WSU’s analysis focused on three mitigation options not previously analyzed. Each required the installation of an appropriately sized cistern (or pond) at augmentation points, from which water would be released to recharge the river system when needed. By collecting water, storing and later releasing it to either shallow aquifers in direct connection with streams, or into streams directly, the options would mitigate the water used by homeowners from their individual wells. The three methods vary most in the source of the recharge water:

• Piped water using public water system inchoate water rights
• Trucked water
• Winter flow capture

Ecology prepared this summary of WSU’s report. WSU’s complete report is included as an appendix.
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Keywords storage, Skagit, mitigation, ground water
WATERSHED Water Resource Inventory Areas
(WRIA 03,WRIA 04)