Water plan takes a big step forward

By David Lester, Yakima Herald-Republic October 30, 2012

Oct. 30--A public investment of billions of dollars to restore Yakima River Basin fish and assure a more stable supply of water for farms and communities would more than pay for itself, according to a new report issued by the federal Bureau of Reclamation.

The lengthy report issued last week concludes the return on the investment could be as much as three times the cost, based on a variety of assumptions.

Although couched in those assumptions, supporters say the report strengthens the campaign for federal and state dollars for a multi-year project to add new storage, improve fish passage, preserve sensitive habitat, and supply water for municipal, industrial and domestic uses, among its many elements.

Yakima County Commissioner Mike Leita said the positive cost-benefit ratio provides an opportunity missing in prior efforts to expand water storage and resolve water conflicts in the three-county basin.

"That door is now opening. It is of major significance," Leita said. "Everything in this plan is connected. At some point in time all these components must and need to be completed."

Ron Van Gundy of Sunnyside, retired manager and now a consultant for the Roza Irrigation District, said the favorable outcome for benefits is a positive step toward winning congressional support.

"This report should be well-accepted on the federal level," he said.

The positive benefit estimate is critical to obtaining federal funding. Any water project for which the estimated costs exceed the calculated benefits -- a net loss for taxpayers -- has no chance of being funded by Congress. A poor benefit-to-cost ratio shelved the proposed Black Rock reservoir in 2008.

But the report, an economic analysis required by federal regulations for water-related projects, was not greeted warmly all around.

Opponents of adding storage at Bumping Lake, northwest of Yakima, and building a new reservoir at Wymer in the Yakima River Canyon north of Yakima doubt its conclusion, saying the benefits outlined -- particularly for fish -- are inflated and unsupported. They also say the 2008 Black Rock study already rejected both Bumping and Wymer as providing too little benefit for the cost. At that time, the reservoirs were reviewed primarily as irrigation-related, with some improvement for instream flows.

"Our position is this is just another iteration in a deceptive sales campaign," said Ed Henderson of Seattle, a retired civil engineer and member of the conservation group Alpine Lakes Preservation Society. "They don't have any solid data they are willing to give attribution to where it comes from and defend it."

Supporters counter that unlike the prior study, the current effort offers a holistic approach to a variety of issues and needs, including protection of sensitive ecosystems, more reliable water supplies for farmers, habitat improvements and improved fish runs.

Indeed, healthy and sustainable runs of migratory fish that would result from the project offer the most benefits, the report said: anywhere from $5 billion to $7.4 billion over the next century. When the value of an improved irrigation water supply -- $800 million over the same time period -- and water for cities and industries -- $400 million -- are added, the total benefits rise to as much as $8.6 billion.

Arrayed against those benefits, the report said, are cost estimates putting the entire price tag anywhere from $3.1 billion to $5.7 billion. The more probable cost estimate, based on 2012 dollars, is $4.2 billion, according to the report. The current value of those costs, the report said, range from $2.7 billion to $4.4 billion.

Annual maintenance and operating costs are estimated at $12 million.

According to federal guidelines, the costs allocated to ecological restoration, such as fish passage, habitat and streamflow enhancements, would be paid by the federal government. Other costs, for additional water to assure a 70 percent supply in drought years and new municipal supplies, would have to be paid back by those who benefit.

Irrigation districts receiving the additional water would also have a repayment. Van Gundy said per-acre costs for the Roza and other recipients have yet to be calculated. The other recipients are the Kittitas Reclamation District in Ellensburg and the Wapato Irrigation Project on the Yakama Nation reservation.

The money would pay for the new storage dams and an expansion of Lake Cle Elum, fish passage at the five basin water storage dams, aquifer storage, water conservation, additional water for irrigation, a more robust water-marketing program, acquisition of private land for preservation, and changes in how the basin water delivery system is operated.

The overall project is known as the integrated plan. A group representing all basin water interests, including local governments, the Yakama Nation, state and federal agencies, irrigation districts and conservation groups, crafted the plan over more than two years. The Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Ecology brought the group together after the federal agency dropped a plan to build a huge reservoir in the Black Rock Valley, east of Moxee, to draw water from the Columbia River. The proposed 1.7 million acre-foot Black Rock reservoir would cost as much as $7 billion and return only 13 cents for each dollar spent.

In addition to the projected benefits, the analysis of the new integrated plan also sought to provide a firmer cost estimate for plan elements and identify a schedule for when the project's features might be completed. Prepared by a group of consultants hired by Reclamation and Ecology, the report said enlarging Bumping Lake from its current 33,000 acre-feet to 190,000 acre-feet would take 10 years once authorized.

The canyon reservoir, an off-channel reservoir known as Wymer, holding 162,000 acre-feet, would take eight years to build. Adding fish passage at Lake Cle Elum, a proposal that already has been approved by Reclamation but not yet funded, could be in place within six years. Fish passage at the other dams would be 10 years out.

Implementing additional agricultural and municipal water conservation and enhancing flood plain and river habitat would continue through the project's 30-year time frame.

Meanwhile, Ecology officials are working to develop a state capital budget request; outgoing Gov. Chris Gregoire pledged to seek a $20 million appropriation from the Legislature.

Derek Sandison, who heads Ecology's Office of the Columbia River, has been the agency's leader on the integrated plan, and welcomed the Bureau of Reclamation report.

"We are pleased Reclamation has been able to take this step. It helps us move forward with the plan," he said. "It has to be advanced on the state and federal side simultaneously."

Michael Garrity, Washington conservation chairman for the conservation group American Rivers and the environmental representative on the integrated plan work group, said the report provides momentum.

"It confirms the integrated plan is a good investment for all the stakeholders who have agreed to it," he said. "It's a good investment for fish, farmers and the environment. Obviously, it's not inexpensive but worth the investment on the federal, state and local levels," he said.

Garrity rejected arguments by the Alpine Lakes group and others that the estimates of fish value are inflated. He said the estimates have credibility and have been used by several organizations, including the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and the Army Corps of Engineers.

"It shows that salmon restoration has real value which is consistent with past studies and that is where, from an environmental advocate, we don't want to see them undervalued," he said.

The report estimates that the integrated plan, once fully implemented, could add anywhere from 181,650 to 472,450 adult salmon and steelhead to the Columbia River system fish population. The majority would be sockeye, a species that relies on mountain lakes and their tributaries to spawn. Numbers of sockeye, which disappeared from the Yakima Basin when the natural lakes were dammed for irrigation, could reach 380,000.

The current five-year average for migratory fish produced in the Yakima River Basin is less than 26,000 adults.

The estimate of value is based on surveys of Washington state residents and calculates how much Washington and Oregon residents would be willing to pay to have more fish in the river system.

"Considering the combined households of Washington and Oregon, the total economic value of the fish-related benefits of the Integrated Plan is $5 billion for the low-end increase and $7.4 billion for the high-end," the report stated.

But Henderson of Alpine Lakes is not persuaded.

"Their numbers are fishy," he said.

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

Most probable cost estimates for major elements of the Yakima River Basin integrated water plan

Water storage: $1.998 billion

Land acquisition, flood plain, tributary restoration: $580 million

Fish passage: $434 million

Irrigation water conservation: $427 million

Aquifer storage: $111 million

Water banking: $2.1 million

___

(c)2012 Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.)