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Drought takes its toll in urban area

Yamanakas well went south because the aquifer it draws from hasnt recharged and because development in the area has increased demand on the ground water. Some of her neighbors have had wells go dry and have installed cisterns, too.

Drilling Waiting for Water The Gazette takes an in-depth look at Montanas drought and what it will take to recover from its effects.

another well wasnt an option because it would tap the same depleted aquifer, Yamanaka said. With her new $4,000 system, Yamanaka uses the well to replenish the cistern, which also has a pump. The well pump automatically shuts off if it starts sucking air.

If the well goes dry, then I just get a water service, she said.

Having practiced conservation for years, Yamanaka does not take water for granted.

Its really a wake-up call when you turn on the tap and nothing comes out, maybe a little sand, but thats about it, she said. We went probably a week without water. You cant wash clothes. You cant cook. If I want a lawn, I have to start over. Potable water is a nice thing.

Montanas drought has affected domestic wells as well as municipal water supplies and power plants in the Yellowstone Valley, the states largest urban area.

This summer, the city of Laurel came dangerously close to losing its water because of low flows in the Yellowstone River. PPL Montana installed portable pumps in the river to maintain the water supply needed to generate power at its Corette plant. In downtown Billings, trees withered under the hot sun. 
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Billings residents, however, probably did not feel the pinch of drought in their daily lives. The city avoided the headaches the Yellowstone caused other municipalities because its intake is in a spot unaffected by even record low flows. Were very fortunate to have a reliable intake, said Billings Public Utilities Director Carl Christensen. Billings waterworks serves about 92,000 people.

The citys demand for water was about normal this summer, Christensen said. In July, water consumption actually declined compared with previous years because it was a relatively wet month, he said.

While the city takes as much as 50 million gallons of water a day from the Yellowstone, it returns about 17 million gallons a day after treatment in the wastewater plant, Christensen said. The result is that Billings uses less than 3 percent of the flow in the river, he said.

Like Yamanaka, many Yellowstone Valley residents rely on ground water wells. Well driller Al Hicks, of ADT/Pro Pump and Equipment in Billings, said the drought without a doubt has increased the demand for new wells to replace ones going dry.

Were seeing some serious problems, Hicks said. Urban dwellers are just now becoming aware of it, he said.

In addition to ground water problems in the Billings area, Hicks said hes seeing problems throughout his territory, which includes the Bighorn Basin, north of Ryegate to the Snowy Mountains and west to the Crazy Mountains.

In rural areas, springs traditionally used by ranchers to water livestock are drying up.

In Billings West End, a shrinking aquifer is further affected by subdivisions springing up on lands that traditionally raised irrigated crops.

Jess Aber, a watershed planner with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, said the West End has a relatively small aquifer confined by sandstone. The aquifer historically was replenished through irrigation with Yellowstone River water.

As land is developed, however, the aquifer is not being recharged as it was. Meanwhile, demand for ground water is increasing. The upper aquifer may be replenished through lawn irrigation, Aber said, but the confined aquifer is at risk.

Driller Hicks also said that an increasing number of Billings residents on city water want irrigation wells in their yards, Hicks said. Customers have thousands of dollars invested in landscape and are looking to cut expenses from their city water bills. The typical irrigation well and pump for a Billings lot costs about $1,800, he said. Ground water wells in the Yellowstone Valley usually are less than 50 feet deep. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Residential landscaping may have come through the summer relatively unscathed, but some of Billings trees had a tough time.

Laura Agar, the citys seasonal park supervisor and forester, said trees appeared stressed this year and last year. Wilted and scorched leaves, or leaves mottled from bacterial infection, are all signs of a stressed tree.

Agar found boulevard trees and trees downtown with leaves scorched from a lack of water. Property owners hadnt realized they needed to provide water, she said.

Downtown trees planted by businesses need extra attention because the pavement surrounding the trees heats up and the soil underneath absorbs that heat, she said. The citys trees planted along Montana Avenue have an irrigation system.

Insects also seemed to be more of a problem this year. Agar said she noticed mites on some of the downtown locust trees. Stressed trees become more vulnerable to insects, she said.

Dallas Gardner, the owner of Gardner Lawn Care in Billings, also has noticed that insects have become more of a problem during the drought.

The insects each year get progressively worse, what with no rain year after year and no snow. I see a lot of mites, lots of aphids, he said.

Without snow this winter or rain in the spring, Gardner predicts lots of winter kill. Im sure the tree removal business will be pretty good next year, he said.

Gardner recommends watering trees, even during the winter, when we have these open winters and warm weather.
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The drought has been particularly hard on PPLs Corette power plant. The 150-megawatt coal-fired generator located along the Yellowstone River in Billings depends on river water to cool steam that generates electricity. The water is returned to the river after going through the plant. The intake pumps for the plant dont work if the river drops below about 1,100 cubic feet per second. And for several days, the river flowed below that threshold.

PPL first proposed installing a temporary dam of concrete blocks across the rivers main channel to pool water for its pumps. But it was denied a permit after fish and wildlife agencies and conservation groups objected.

PPL turned to a more expensive, less disruptive option and placed two hydraulic pumps in the river.

Dan Gatch, plant manager, said the river pumps ran for three weeks and were removed as the water has risen. The pumps helped supply water but became plugged with moss.

We had a fun summer, he said.

The plant also had to cut production for several days to stay within regulations that govern the temperature of water that PPL returns to the river, Gatch said. The discharged water cant warm the river more than 3 degrees.

PPLs long-term solution is to lower the pump in the Bird intake to get water during very low flows. Modification of the intake, which supplied water to the former Bird generating plant, is costing a little more than $500,000, Gatch said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
While the Yellowstone has risen in recent weeks thanks mainly to the end of the irrigation season there could be more trouble ahead for PPL and other big water users this winter. Cold temperatures and low flows create ice jams.

Ice floes last winter ripped out a berm constructed by the city of Laurel, which has had problems getting water to its intake since the river changed channels after floods in 1996 and 1997.

In August, faced with losing water, Laurel bulldozed another berm in the river, hoping to force the water to flow past its intake.

Its holding right now, said Public Works Director Larry McCann of the berm. We do have a tremendous concern, come January, when the temperature is 30 below and (we) have ice floes.