|
|
|
|
Inyo, L.A. run into murky language in LTWA |
|
|
Friday, 23 May 2008 |
|
By Mike Gervais
Register Staff 5-22-2008
A bit of disagreement has surfaced between Inyo County and the Los Angeles Department over the definition of different types of wells as they’re listed in the manual that governs the two entities’ Owens Valley groundwater management.
The county is concerned the disagreement, due to unclear language in the Inyo-L.A. Long-Term Water Agreement, could lead to wells being sunk and pumped and not scrutinized at the level they should be.
Essentially, Inyo County Acting Water Director Bob Harrington recently explained, the issue comes down to whether a well should be considered a “new” well or a “replacement” well.
Harrington briefed the Inyo County Board of Supervisors on Section VI of the LTWA, which deals with “new” wells and their production capacity.
“Within the language here, we’ve run into disagreements with L.A.,” Harrington said. “How this section applies to replacement wells is unclear,” and the Water Department hopes to work with both the LADWP and the Inyo County Board of Supervisors to clarify the language.
In addition to the discrepancies in the language of Section VI of the LTWA, Harrington said that the process of Inyo-L.A. Technical Group evaluations of newly constructed wells, either new wellfields or replacement wells, is also unclear.
As an example, Harrington explained that “LADWP replaced wells on the Bishop Cone and because they were replacements, not new wells, they didn’t go through as much evaluation as a new well would, and ended up with more pumping capacity.”
He said the higher pumping capacity was, at least in part, a result of newer equipment being installed in the wells, which were built in the 1920s.
Harrington suggested two options to rectify the unclear language. He said that the county could proceed by defining what the defference is between a new well and a replacement well, and develop a Tech Group protocol for each scenario, “so the Tech Group has a better road map on how to proceed with these evaluations.”
Harrington’s other suggestion is to throw out the distinction.
“Why worry about the distinction? The Tech Group needs to evaluate new wells if they’re replacements or not,” he said. “We want to be sure each well gets an appropriate evaluation.”
The Inyo County Water Department feels that “all production wells Los Angeles constructs should be evaluated with respect to the LTWA goals” but is reluctant to make any canvassing decision on the level of evaluation of wells.
“A wide range of circumstances of new wells make a priori decision on the level of evaluation unwise/impractical,” Harrington said. “Replacement wells require some level of evaluation to ensure that effects are the same as the wells that are being replaced. A priori exclusion of replacement wells from evaluation is a disincentive for improved well design/location.”
Harrington did say that the LADWP agrees that the new well evaluation process “should be clear as to what evaluations are required” and that “the process should provide a well-defined time line” for the evaluations.
But the LADWP has said that “replacement wells should have a priori reduced level of evaluation.
“But we’re wary of this blanket decision,” Harrington said.
“What we’re working on now is developing a draft Tech Group process and time line for comprehensive evaluation of a new well,” Harrington said.
That process and time line, thus far, contains four decision points for the Tech Group: pre-construction evaluation, construction plan, long-term test plan and the operation plan.
At each decision point, Harrington said, both the LADWP and the Tech Group would have the option to seek peer review, ask for clarification or direction or report a disagreement to the LTWA standing committee.
That draft Tech Group process has been sent to LADWP and the county is awaiting a response.
“If the applicability of the process to replacement wells is unresolved, we will revisit it when the evaluation process is further developed,” Harrington said.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 )
|
|
|
|
