Spokane Health Building Taps into Groundwater for Carbon-Neutral Goals

It’s not every day you can celebrate the first step in an innovative, carbon-neutral $60 Million health campus. In Spokane, Washington, a group of regional partners – including Gonzaga University, University of Washington, and McKinstry – are collaborating to build a four-story, 80,000-square foot health sciences building in the heart of Spokane’s riverfront. This Regional Health Partnership is the first of its kind in several ways. The public-private collaboration is unique as all partners look to build a world-class health headquarters in the Inland Empire. It’s also special because it has its sights on achieving recent carbon-neutral targets set out by the state of Washington.

The campus is just breaking ground now, with target construction completion finishing in summer 2022. One of the keys to the carbon-neutral puzzle – essentially, no emissions from the campus – is an innovative heating and cooling system for the campus building. This system, which is being co-designed between Aspect and McKinstry, pumps groundwater from an aquifer beneath the property, runs the water through a mechanical device where heat energy in the water is used to heat or cool the building. This “Open-Loop Ground Source Heat Pump” system has been implemented elsewhere but is not done very often because the subsurface conditions have to be just right to both provide the energy and cost savings to make it viable.

Take a look at the celebratory video marking this milestone (see Aspect’s ‘congratulations’ at 19:25 of the video):

A Nod to the Mighty Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer

Aspect is the hydrogeologic lead on the ground-source heat pump piece of the project and, as a company founded by hydrogeologists, we’re excited to contribute to eliminating carbon-based fuels historically used to heat and cool buildings.

The Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) aquifer in the project region is known as a highly productive one, pumping out the right temperature and volume to make the overall heating/cooling vision for the campus come to life. The final piece of the puzzle came together through a detailed characterization of the site to support water rights permitting.

There’s plenty of more work to do on this exciting project in the months to come and we look forward to helping other clients meet innovative and forward-looking energy goals with hydrogeologic science..

Ground Source Heat Pump: Saving Energy Costs and Reducing Carbon Footprints

Our new COVID-19 world has changed every part of work life, including for Aspect. But work does continue on at the same time, as long as it can be done safely, at a distance from others, and consistent with the intent of the current Governor’s Order. Because of the environmental work that we do, Aspect is used to working under strict health and safety procedures. One snapshot of Aspect’s work relates to what our water supply team has been doing for the state’s Public Health Lab in Shoreline, Washington.

Helping to Build a New Public Health Testing Facility

In another year, this may have been just another water supply project – bread-and-butter work for our geologists/hydrogeologists. However, this year finds Aspect’s team working on one of our state’s and the nation’s most unique sites – a Public Health lab that is analyzing COVID-19 tests, among others.

This project was in progress before the COVID-19 news hit—to help design and install a network of ground source heat pump injection and extraction wells to sustainably heat and cool their expanded laboratory efficiently and with a low carbon footprint (another Governor Initiative).

Groundwater to Sustainably Heat and Cool Facility Operations

Why is a ground source heating/cooling method more sustainable? We can use the constant groundwater temperature of about 55 degrees as a way to heat and cool buildings through a mechanical device called a heat pump. The groundwater and heat pump use very little mechanical energy compared to the conventional alternative: a fuel-based boiler and an electrical or water-intensive chiller/air conditioner to heat and cool the laboratory.

The open-loop ground source heat pump system starts with the extraction of groundwater from wells designed and installed by Aspect. The groundwater is then pumped through the heat exchanger then injected back to the ground. No water is lost. The 55 degree ambient temperature of groundwater provides a heat source to heat the lab in the winter and a heat sink to cool the lab in the summer. This system replaces the conventional carbon-based heating and cooling system to reduce carbon footprint and save money in energy costs over a system’s lifespan.

Developing a High-Yield Well in the Middle of the City

The complexities of local Seattle geology can sometimes make high-yield well (i.e., 100+ gallons per minute) development a challenge locally, yet the project team has seen encouraging initial results. Aspect oversaw drilling of a 300-foot-deep boring and conducted a series of tests to assess potential well yields and thermal properties of the ground. After wrapping up well drilling and testing recently, our water supply team is analyzing the hydraulic and thermal modeling, with the goal to have heating design recommendations done by June and delivered to our partner, McKinstry, the mechanical engineering leader of the project team.

Water Supply Testing of Well at the State’s Public Health Lab in April 2020

Aspect Talks Reclaimed Water, ASR, and Walla Walla Basin at 2019 AWWA

Andrew Austreng, Jon Turk, and John Warinner will be presenting Thursday and Friday May 2 and 3rd at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) ‘River Runs Through It’ 2019 Section Conference in Vancouver, WA. Andrew will present on the Othello, WA Aquifer Storage and Recovery project; Jon Turn will showcase groundwater recharge strategies for a unique project involving reclaimed water in Kitsap County; and John Warinner will discuss challenges and opportunities of managing groundwater across two state lines in the Walla Walla subbasin.

The annual AWWA conference is one of the largest conferences for water professionals in the Pacific Northwest.

Aspect Talks Water at AWWA Conference

Tim Flynn and Dan Haller will both be presenting Friday April 27th at the AWWA ‘Just Add Water’ 2018 Section Conference in Tacoma. Friday morning, Tim’s presentation will focus on the City of Othello’s unique approach to source development by securing new supplies using irrigation canals, reclaimed water and ASR.

Aspect’s Andrew Austreng will be moderating the afternoon Water Resources technical session during which Dan Haller will be presenting an overview of water rights and water banking in WA.

Aspect Stormwater Team Presents at MuniCon 2017

Aspect is proudly sponsoring and presenting at this year’s Washington State Municipal Stormwater Conference (MuniCon), May 16 & 17 in Yakima, WA.

On Day 1, Senior Associate Engineer, Tom Atkins and Senior Project Hydrogeologist, Andrew Austreng will be leading a discussion on infiltration testing requirements from the Stormwater Management Manual for Western Washington.

During Day 2, Senior Hydrologist, James Packman and Greg Vigoren, City of Lakewood, will be presenting an evaluation of Western Washington Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE) data. Later in the day, Principal Engineer, John Knutson and Project Engineer, Erik Pruneda, along with Rob Buchert, City of Pullman, will be presenting on designing and constructing Low Impact Development (LID) retrofits in low permeability soils.

Aspect’s Tom Atkins and Senior Hydrologist, Bryan Berkompas will also be displaying poster presentations. Tom will be providing a poster on assessing the feasibility of stormwater infiltration at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. While Bryan’s poster demonstrates a hydrologic performance evaluation of ten bioretention facilities across the Puget Sound region through a project funded by Stormwater Action Monitoring.

The conference is presented by the Washington Stormwater Center, in partnership with Yakima County and the Department of Ecology. This unique conference focuses specifically on addressing high-priority issues and challenges faced by municipal NPDES permittees statewide. Learn more about the conference at: http://www.wastormwatercenter.org/municon2017/.  

Aspect at the 2017 WA Hydrogeology Symposium

Aspect's Tyson Carlson and Andrew Austreng will both be presenting at the 11th Washington Hydrogeology Symposium in Tacoma this week (May 9-11). Senior Project Hydrogeologist Andrew Austren will discuss his Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) work on the Columbia Plateau. Andrew will present on his work for the City of Othello and how the City aims to stabilize aquifer levels and support well yields under current and future water demand.

Associate Hydrogeologist Tyson Carlson will present at a Thursday workshop on Training for Water Rights Analysis – Certified Water Rights Examiners (CWREs).  This workshop offers a refresher for CWREs on Washington water law. Tyson’s presentation will focus on how to write a proof of examination.

Taking place in Tacoma, the Hydrogeology Symposium is one of the Northwest's foremost meeting place for hydrogeologists and groundwater professionals in the academic, regulatory, and business worlds.