News Release - Monday - March 5, 2012
Public comments strongly oppose new irrigation dams in Yakima
-- instead, support water conservation and fish passage
Governor Gregoire and Interior Secretary Salazar are asked to acknowledge "rushed" plan's impacts of new irrigation dams on Ancient Forests, people’s lives -- and costs to taxpayers
Spokane - The Sierra Club, Friends of Bumping Lake, and other organizations expressed disappointment with Gov. Gregoire and a final document that will guide the water future for the Yakima River: the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) of the Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. On March 2 the two agency-authors, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Washington Department of Ecology released their proposal estimated to cost $5 billion. Based on that plan, Gov. Gregoire is seeking Congressional and state support for the $5 billion plan -- despite overwhelming opposition of public comments to 2 new irrigation dams in the plan.
"The Bumping Lake community is united in our opposition to the Yakima Plan,” said Chris Maykut, coordinator of Friends of Bumping Lake whose great-grandfather built a cabin at the lake in 1939 and who has spent much of his life at Bumping Lake. “A new dam in the upper Naches River Valley would impact hundreds of people, and generations-old family cabins would be forcibly vacated, flooded, and destroyed. We request that Governor Gregoire and other proponents look past the rhetoric and the non-permanent job creation to understand why this wrong-headed plan has been continually rejected for decades."
The Washington Department of Ecology and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation rushed to publish the final plan barely 59 days after the close of the public comment period. Also rushed was the public comment period for the proposal, and the agencies refused to expand the 45-day public comment period during the holidays.
While noting support for water conservation and passage for salmon at the Bureau of Reclamation's dams on the Yakima River, conservationists and local citizens are opposed to two new irrigation dams in the proposal. A new dam at Bumping Lake would drown and destroy approximately 2,000 acres of National Forest land including about 1,000 acres of ancient forests, according to the draft EIS.
Adjoining the Yakima River canyon, a new dam called Wymer would flood approximately 1,000 acres of shrub steppe habitat at Lmuma Creek. In addition, the Wymer Dam is linked to possible future pumping of the Columbia River into additional storage dams in the Yakima Basin.
“Although alternatives are the heart of the environmental impact statement (EIS) process, the Yakima EIS failed to present a range of alternatives,” said David Ortman of Sierra Club’s Columbia River Future Project. In addition, the Bureau and Ecology failed to respond to many specific comments and dodged others by putting off specific environmental impact analysis to a later date.
“How will the decision-makers and the public be able to evaluate the cumulative impacts of the proposal when any further actions will be dealt with piecemeal?” asked Ortman.
Public comments on the Draft PEIS ran heavily against building new multi-billion dollar irrigation dams in the Yakima Basin. Such projects would include a new irrigation dam on the Bumping River that would flood out Ancient Forests, as well as spotted owl and bull trout habitat within the Wenatchee National Forest; and a new Wymer Dam, between Yakima and Ellensburg, that would wipe out grouse habitat. Only a few comments directly supported these projects.
A coalition of national, regional, state, and local environmental and conservation organizations submitted joint comments opposing the Bumping Lake expansion and the proposed Wymer Dam project including the Alpine Lakes Protection Society; the national Endangered Species Coalition; Kittitas Audubon; Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs; The Mazamas, North Cascades Conservation Coalition; Sierra Club; Western Lands Project; and Western Watersheds Project. The Wise Use Movement, Seattle Audubon, and the Mountaineers also submitted separate comments expressing concerns about Bumping and Wymer.
The Sierra Club generated over 1,500 comments supporting water conservation, fish passage and opposing new irrigation dams. Comments on the Draft PEIS objecting to wasting more taxpayer money on more dams were received from citizens in California to Maryland, as well as from within the Yakima River Basin.
Other local Yakima organizations, including the North Yakima Conservation Board, oppose the Yakima Plan because it includes acquisition of private lands unrelated to the basin’s water supply problems.
Ironically, the Yakima irrigation districts that would benefit the most from their request for billions of dollars of taxpayer money, failed to submit any comments.
"If Governor Christine Gregoire and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar take the time to read the public comments on the Yakima water proposal, they will find that a broad coalition of citizens, taxpayers, and organizations have said ‘no’ to more public pork-barrel irrigation dam subsidies," said Brock Evans, of the Endangered Species Coalition based in Washington, D.C.
Background links
-
•Yakima River Water Future (Sierra Club)
-
•Conservationists' letter to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation requesting public comment deadline extension.
-
•BuRec: Shrub Steppe wildlife values at the proposed Wymer Dam