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Study of Treasure Valley groundwater starts

Posted at 5:24 PM, May 24, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-24 20:14:51-04

TheIdaho Water Resource Board is set to study the Treasure Valley's aquifers.  The first of five, $500,000.00 expenditures have been approved by the state legislature in conjunction with state water interests to initiate the study.

"One of the key features of the new working model of understanding is that it will simulate groundwater flow through the various aquifers that underlie the Treasure Valley. It will evaluate both groundwater and surface water interaction," said Sean Vincent, project manager for the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

The study will depend on prior data collected by LANDSAT, an Earth-monitoring satellite, in addition to new measurements.

The boundaries of the study are the Snake River along the southwest and northwest, the Main Payette River drainage to the north, the area where the valley floor meets the Boise Foothills along the northeast, and the Mountain Home Plateau to the southeast.

Idaho Water Resource officials teamed up with the University of Idaho several years ago to develop an application that mapped evapotranspiration in a sophisticated an accurate way that won an"Innovations in American Government" award from Harvard University in 2009.