Klamath stakeholders propose using remaining domestic well grant to expand groundwater monitoring and pilot managed aquifer recharge

Dave Hensley, representing the Klamath Water Users Association, told the Klamath County Board of Commissioners during a work session Oct. 1 that a plan to install groundwater monitoring wells and fold managed aquifer recharge work into local training programs could use existing grant funds and provide data to guide surface-water and groundwater management.

Hensley said the state awarded Klamath County a $9,000,000 domestic well grant after more than 400 domestic wells went dry in 2021, and that about $4,000,000 of that award remained. "We already have the money to do it. So I'm not here today to talk to you or ask you for money," Hensley said, describing a concept to employ Klamath Community College's Well Driller Apprenticeship program to drill monitoring wells through the Klamath Project area and to support pilot managed aquifer recharge (MAR)…