BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A study looking into ways to preserve groundwater in the county just received the go ahead.

On Tuesday, the Whatcom County Council approved a contract with Associated Earth Sciences, Inc. to study agricultural drain tiles on stream flows in the Nooksack watershed. Drain tiles are perforated pipes that are buried a few feet below the surface of a crop field to allow for water drainage into the ditch system.

Whatcom County Public Works’ Natural Resources Manager Gary Stoyka says that they are looking at the tiles and trying to find a way to slow drainage.

“The thought was we have low flows in the streams up there in the late summer,” he said in a phone interview. “And one of the theories was that those tile drains drain more water than naturally would drain sooner, so that that that water is no longer in the soil to drain into the streams in the later summer.”

A digital model predicts that blocking the drains for part of the year could help retain water in the soil.

Stoyka adds that the study is tied to the ongoing adjudication in the Nooksack Watershed and is one of many things that people in Whatcom County are doing to solve our water problems…

“We know we’ve got too much water in the winter and not enough in the summer, and we’ve known it for quite a while,” Stoyka said. “We’re looking at storage projects. We’re looking at, you know, are there other sources of groundwater? Are there other ways we can manage?”

The field study is currently funded by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Stoyka said that Associated Earth Sciences is in talks with some farmers in the county to find willing participants in the study.