State seeks public opinion on Columbia River plan

YAKIMA -- State officials are planning a series of four public meetings in Eastern Washington this month to discuss how to implement the Columbia River management plan signed into law earlier this year.

Water users and conservationists have been battling for decades over water rights for the Columbia and its tributaries, with one side seeking more water for communities and commerce while the other fights for sufficient water for threatened fish runs. The dispute becomes particularly heated during drought years.

The new bill seeks to make more water available by increasing storage in new reservoirs. It also allows the state to sign regional agreements with communities or other groups seeking new water rights in the near-term in exchange for mitigation efforts to preserve stream flows.

The plan resulted from weeks of closed-door negotiations involving lawmakers from both parties and interest groups representing the environmental community, irrigators and farmers.

In signing the bill, Gov. Christine Gregoire hailed it as a breakthrough in the 30-year stalemate over water needs in Eastern Washington. Others argued the bill was a backroom deal that locked out the public and sacrificed the region's largest waterway.

"There are great expectations around this bill, and that is why we're taking a fast track on it and getting out there with these meetings right away," said Joye Redfield-Wilder, spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology. "If we make sure all of the concerns are out there and open and can be addressed, we feel more confident that we'll have a successful program."

Ecology officials will hold four open houses in May to gather public comment on how to implement the plan. The agency also will accept public comments through June 5, as part of the scoping process to develop an environmental impact statement for the management plan. Parts of the plan take effect July 1.

Topics to be discussed at the public meetings include water conservation projects and voluntary regional agreements to provide new water for out-of-stream use, as well as:

Methods to deliver water from the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project to the declining Odessa aquifer east of Moses Lake, where farmers' wells are going dry.

Efforts to secure water by drawing down Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam, and working with the Colville Confederated Tribes to mitigate for any impacts.

The feasibility of new storage sites or reservoirs to augment water supplies in the Columbia River basin.

Proposals for storing Columbia River water have been floated for years, but perhaps never more so than last summer, when farmers, fish and cities alike suffered under a severe drought. Snowpack in the mountains was far below normal, and forecasters have predicted the potential for continued declining snowpack in the decades to come.

However, the feasibility of new reservoirs has been questioned among conservation groups and some Native American tribes that fear they could endanger threatened fish and wildlife habitat.

Late last year, a new study for the state and federal government narrowed a list of potential reservoir sites to 11. Ecology officials are expected to narrow the list further this summer.

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