Selah, Washington

Many areas of Eastern Washington are dealing with decades of unsustainable declines in groundwater levels in local aquifers due to withdrawals exceeding natural recharge. These declines have significant economic impacts on local municipalities, agricultural users, and single domestic-well users, all of whom rely on this groundwater. These declines also have long-term impacts on local stream flows and fish habitat. The East Moxee Black Rock (EMBR) area, near Yakima, Washington, is a structural subbasin that is experiencing some of the most significant declines in groundwater in the larger Yakima basin. Our client, the Selah-Moxee Irrigation District, is leading multidisclininary feasibility studies to better understand the nature and extent of groundwater declines in the EMBR and to create a strategy to develop a new water market that would import more reliable surface water to the EMBR and reduce reliance on local aquifers. On their behalf, Geosyntec helped lead the Phase II investigations and coordinated with many stakeholders throughout the basin.