Water talks begin with cost

Rough numbers show $2 billion investment needed to upgrade basin’s storage system

David Lester

Yakima Herald-Republic, September 23, 2010

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The numbers are rough, but they point to a large investment needed to resolve chronic water issues in the Yakima River Basin.

Consultants told a basin work group attempting to craft that solution Thursday the cost could exceed $2 billion. The roundtable meeting was held at the Yakima Area Arboretum.

At issue are the ability to provide enough water for future irrigation and municipal needs and helping restore fish.

The big-ticket items are for new storage by expanding Bumping Lake, at a cost of $228 million, and building a new reservoir in the Yakima River Canyon, north of Yakima.

Bumping Lake, which would be enlarged to about 160,000 acre-feet, a five-fold increase over its current capacity of 33,000 acre-feet, has been studied and rejected for decades because of environmental concerns.

The largest concern is the impact on old-growth timber and bull trout, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

An environmental group, the Washington, D.C.-based Endangered Species Coalition, raised those same concerns in the letter to the group.

The letter said efforts to solve basin problems should focus on water conservation.

The most expensive project is the river canyon reservoir, known as Wymer.

The proposed 162,000 acre-foot reservoir would be located on Lmuma Creek, 15 miles north of Yakima. Filling the reservoir with a combination of pipeline from the Yakima River near Thorp and using a portion of the existing Kittitas Reclamation District canal would cost $813 million.

Cost estimates for the new storage are mid-range costs and could be higher or lower.

Also proposed is a pipeline between Kachess and Keechelus reservoirs to better utilize water production in the high Cascades and a slight increase in capacity at Lake Cle Elum, the basin's largest current storage reservoir at close to 437,000 acre-feet.

Not included in the preliminary estimate, however, is the cost to provide fish passage at existing basin dams to provide spawning and rearing habitat for migratory and resident fish.

Most Yakima Irrigation Project reservoirs were constructed in the early 1900s without fish ladders. Lake Cle Elum, constructed in 1933, also did not include passage for fish.

The failure resulted in the extinction of sockeye salmon.

The group, including farmers, tribal representatives, state and federal fish managers, and representatives of local and state government, is hoping to wrap up a final package by December.

Storage and passage aren't the only elements of the overall plan. The group will also consider water conservation, water banking, and aquifer storage of water.

A request for funding would be made to Congress and the state Legislature by the end of next year.

Derek Sandison, head of the state Department of Ecology's Office of the Columbia River, who is coordinating the study effort with the Bureau of Reclamation, said requests for funding would be phased over a period of years.

"We wouldn't be asking for this in one request," Sandison said. "We would have a few projects in construction and staged over time."

While the final outcome is yet to be determined, the group did express general agreement with the estimates of how much water will be needed in the future to insulate farmers from drought, for future municipal needs as well as general concepts for instream flow needs to maximize fish habitat and production.

Most members said they are comfortable with estimates that about 350,000 acre-feet of water would be needed to assure a 70 percent supply for irrigation and municipal needs.

The irrigation estimate of 299,000 acre-feet would firm up water supplies for the junior water districts, those whose supplies are reduced during a drought.

Those districts are the Kittitas Reclamation District in Ellensburg and the Roza Irrigation District and Wapato Irrigation Project in the Lower Yakima Valley.

Municipal and domestic water needs through 2060, according to the estimate, are 49,000 acre-feet. The figure includes water conservation and conversion of farm land to residential uses.

The state Ecology Department and the Bureau of Reclamation called the water interests together more than a year ago to try to reach consensus on a plan to resolve water problems.

The current effort began after the bureau ended a five-year, $18 million study that ultimately rejected three proposed storage projects included in the study.

The study's primary focus was Black Rock, a 1.7 million acre-foot reservoir, east of Yakima, estimated to cost
$5 billion for construction.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.

* This story has been updated to correct the the estimated construction cost of Black Rock.