Recognizing the importance of protecting local groundwater resources and the value of seeking community-based, non-regulatory solutions to water resource issues relating to water quality and water quantity in the four-county region, the Boards of County Commissioners along with local citizens and stakeholders of Adams, Franklin, Grant and Lincoln Counties, Washington joined together to form the Columbia Basin Ground Water Management Area, or GWMA, to provide a public forum for the protection of groundwater.  The GWMA designation offers a method by which local citizens and government can work together to develop a Ground Water Management Area Plan, which offers sound locally-based workable solutions to achieve groundwater protection.

The Columbia Basin Groundwater Management Area, with the help of internationally acclaimed experts in groundwater, tackle one of the regions most complex and challenging natural resource issues.

The GWMA is a local pro-active, non-regulatory grassroots organization made up of local area citizens, stakeholders and elected leaders representing urban and rural residents, domestic well owners, agricultural production and food processing, livestock producer groups, county land use planning and public health, watershed planning groups, water conservancy boards, municipal and rural water systems along with many other water resource groups and organizations.  Each of these participants recognizes the importance of groundwater as a critical resource and has been working diligently to implement projects and activities to understand the groundwater conditions of this area through science-based studies and programs. The GWMA is located in the dry semi-arid climate of eastern Washington where the average precipitation ranges between 6” and 10” annually, little aquifer recharge from rainfall is likely to occur.  In a region where well over 90% of its residents rely heavily on groundwater as their only source of water, GWMA leaders and participants recognize the importance of the groundwater and that this critical resource must be protected.

The scientific technical data and information being gathered today by the GWMA about this region’s aquifer system will provide local citizens and decision-makers with sound scientific information that has never been available before for this area and assist them in making informed and educated decisions relating to this area’s water issues. We invite you to browse through this website for more information regarding the GWMA scientific studies, hydrologic modeling projects, and programs implemented to protect groundwater.

  

Columbia Basin Ground Water Management Area

170 N. Broadway, Othello, Washington 99344

509.488.3409 or Email:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it