WOODINVILLE, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Officials around Washington state are coming together to make a game plan for this year’s drought.
The Washington Department of Ecology held a press conference Wednesday, May 6 to talk about what they plan to do in light of the drought declaration for the fourth year in a row.
Launching Washington’s Water Future, the statewide initiative will institute water-saving measures.
What those measures are was outlined mostly in the press conference, but education, aquifers and reclamation systems will be part of the campaign. Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office said that a series of regional round tables will be held to inform conservation proposals ahead of next legislative session.
Several speakers from the local, tribal and state level spoke at the event, including Lynden Mayor Scott Korthuis.
Korthuis noted how the City of Lynden annexed a well from a water association outside the city, started reclaiming water from the Darigold plant and an underground aquifer.
“This is where it can slowly discharge back into the Nooksack River during times of lower flows,” he said during the conference. “These so-called Managed Aquifer Recharge projects are in the early stages but are showing some promise in our area.”
Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) systems are in place in several locations in the Western U.S., including Montana, Nevada and Idaho. My Bellingham Now has reached out to Mayor Korthuis for further comment on how far along the MAR project is in Lynden.
Gov. Ferguson’s office added that Washington’s previous model of reliance on a deep mountain snowpack for water storage is obsolete under the current climate conditions.
