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Columbia Basin hunts for new water storage |
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Written On: September/October 2007 |
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Written By: by Paul Schlienz |
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Water
Columbia Basin hunts for new water storage
For almost a century, residents of the Columbia Basin have suffered through endless battles over the use of water. The arid, 260,000-square-mile swath of western North America comprises all of Washington east of the Cascade Range, as well as parts of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and small portions of California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Although the fights between competing interests have often seemed intractable, there is nhow hope that real solutions may be within reach.
The Columbia River Water Management Bill (HB 2860), sponsored by Rep. Bill Grant, D-Walla Walla, was approved by the Legislature in 2006.
"The passage of this bill was the first time conservation groups and economic interests came together in a way that allows us to begin a serious look at water supply in the Columbia Basin, and it was also the first time that there was an agreement on the front end on how to provide for in-stream and out-of-stream users," said Gerry O'Keefe, who oversaw the bill for the Department of Ecology. "Being able to reach that agreement was critically important. It really broke the block that had been in place for nearly 30 years."
The bill authorizes $200 million for water projects and starts the ball rolling on seriously looking for storage sites for Columbia River water.
"The proof of this bill's success will be in the implementation," said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, an original co-sponsor of the bill. "That's what we're working on now—making sure that the intent of the legislation is actually the result."
Water in a dry land
Water is eastern Washington's lifeblood. With rain clouds from the Pacific coast largely blocked by the Cascade Range, eastern Washington is much drier than the western side of the state.
For a dry region, eastern Washington is surprisingly rich in rivers. Born in the Canadian Rockies, the Columbia River drains a vast region. The river cuts through eastern Washington and the Cascade Range before discharging its flow—North America's fourth largest in volume—into the Pacific. Major tributaries—the Snake, the Pend Oreille, the Spokane, the Yakima, the Wenatchee, the Okanogan and the Kettle—crisscross the region before they add their own water to the Columbia's massive volume. Even in most arid parts of the Columbia Basin, water is never far away.
Native American tribes once thrived in the region thanks to the salmon runs supported by the river system. The river also brought floods, which became particularly devastating after settlement of the region. Farms, towns and cities were established in the Columbia's flood plain, putting an increasingly large population at risk.
Beginning in the early 20th century, large numbers of homesteaders settled on the Columbia Plateau, attempting to farm the arid lands using conventional dry farming techniques. With only 10 inches of rain annually, however, the farms were doomed to failure except for the minority on lands with deep soils and high water-holding capacity. Meanwhile, in other parts of eastern Washington—most notably the Yakima Basin—agriculture was thriving and expanding thanks to irrigation.
In 1918, local interests proposed building a great dam on the Columbia River at the upper Grand Coulee to make water available to vast irrigable lands on the plateau. The project did not become a reality until 1933 when Congress appropriated funds to the build the dam, which began operating in 1942.
The third dam constructed on the Columbia, the Grand Coulee was the largest dam in the world. Its primary function was flood control and water storage. That it also produced cheap, clean, renewable energy was an added bonus that increased in importance as the Pacific Northwest became more industrialized. By the 1970s, the Grand Coulee Dam was part of a constellation of 15 major dams on the Washington portions of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, which transformed these wild waterways with their often-deadly floods into a placid chain of storage reservoirs while also producing electricity.
With a backed-up storage reservoir—Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake—that flooded 150 miles of the Columbia River, and the creation of Banks Lake using a complex pumping system, the Grand Coulee Dam succeeded on a spectacular scale in creating the water storage necessary for extensive irrigation on the dry lands of the plateau. When, in 1951, water finally arrived in the irrigable lands 50 miles south of the dam, the Columbia Plateau was at last on track to reach its agricultural potential.
Then, in the 1970s, battles over competing uses of river water became more intense. Along with the traditional agricultural, industrial and municipal uses of this precious resource, there were new demands from environmentalists, Native American tribes, and federal agencies for the protection of salmon runs and the restoration of habitat.
"The Columbia River is a big river," O'Keefe said. "It's got a lot of water in it, but there are times of the year when the use of that water is highly competitive; in particular, during the summertime when the need for water to keep that river flowing and cool for endangered species is particularly high. Of course, this coincides with the time of the year that the demand for agriculture is at its peak, as well."
Conflicts over in-stream and out-of-stream uses of river water became intense and litigious. In a climate with little consensus between stakeholders, new water storage and distribution initiatives in the mold of the successful and ambitious projects earlier in the century became all but impossible.
A new consensus
With the 2006 passage of the Columbia River Water Management Bill, a consensus on the need for new water storage finally emerged after years of acrimony and stalemate.
"There was an agreement between parties with competing interests that doing nothing about Columbia River water was not an option," said Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham. "Doing nothing wasn't helping environmental concerns or the interests of other parties."
"Trying to find ways to capture water at times of the year when it is plentiful and there is less demand in aquifers, within existing facilities, in new facilities, or through conservation all helps us get water to the place where we need it, when we need it," O'Keefe said.
Interestingly, concerns over global warming may have contributed to the impetus for creating new water storage.
"Take a watershed that relies not only on the normal rainwater runoff, but also on the snowpack, which releases water as it melts over the spring and summer," said O'Keefe. "If the climate warms, according to some models, that snowpack goes away or starts to go away. I've heard that the Yakima Basin, in particular, could lose up to 70 percent of its snowpack. If that's the case, it will have a dire effect on the existing agricultural industry in the basin. It's something we need to anticipate and plan for now."
The main sites under consideration for new reservoirs are Crab Creek, in Grant County, with potential active storage capacity of 2,300,000 acre feet; Sand Hollow, in Grant County, with potential active storage capacity of 1,100,00 acre feet; and Hawk Creek, in Lincoln County, with potential active storage capacity of 1,400,00 acre feet.
"The Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Ecology think the lower Crab Creek storage option is worth pursuing because it's upstream from Yakima and the Tri-Cities, both of which are having water problems," observed AWB Government Affairs Director Chris McCabe, who worked with both the Legislature and DOE as the Columbia River Water Management Bill was crafted.
Another potential storage site is Black Rock, in Yakima County, which is controversial due to potential pumping expenses and possible soil problems.
"There are still some incomplete studies, so I think the jury is completely out on Black Rock," Newhouse said. "The benefits of a Black Rock Reservoir would be the enhancement of the Yakima River, which has more potential than any other tributary in the Columbia Basin of being restored closer to historic levels as far as fish levels are concerned, through the use of an additional water force," Newhouse said. "Also, there is a need for increased amounts of water in the Yakima Basin because of the increasing population over the last 70 years."
Much further north, near the Canadian border, the Okanogan County Public Utility District is hoping to build a water storage and hydroelectric dam at Shanker's Bend on the Similkameen River—a potential dam site first identified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1948.
"That dam would have stored about one-and-a-half million acres of water going into Canada," remembered Wilbur G. "Web" Hallauer, a former state legislator who represented Oroville as a Democrat from 1949 to 1969. He also served as Washington's first director of the Department of Ecology. "The dam got dropped at British Columbia Premier W.A.C. Bennett's insistence because some of the territory that would have been flooded was part of his home district and political base."
The Similkameen River site has distinct advantages, according to Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient.
"The Similkameen site requires no pumping," said Morton. "It has a narrow gorge. A dam would be financially feasible. The problem with both Crab Creek and Hawk Creek is that they require 90 percent of the run. The Similkameen is a free flow that would supply the reservoir, and this will impact the Columbia drainage from the Canadian border to the ocean. In addition, it could generate some power."
Unlike Crab Creek, which has generated some controversy because it would flood a substantial amount of irrigated farmland, the Shanker's Bend Dam would have little negative impact on agriculture.
"If we limit the backup of the water to the Nighthawk Bridge, it's mostly grazing land, not farms," added Hallauer. "If you went beyond the bridge, the feed would merge with Palmer Lake, and you could go 10 to 15 feet above the level of the lake and still not damage much farmland."
New opportunities
In addition to new storage sites, there is also the possibility of increasing storage on existing sites. One of the most intriguing storage opportunities may lie deep in the interior of British Columbia at Mica Dam, on the upper Columbia River.
"Mica Dam has holes for two more generators," said AWB's Vice President of Government Affairs Gary Chandler. "Canada has always said it would release more water into the Columbia River system, but not without making electricity. Part of our solution could be in working with Canada to put two generators in the Mica Dam. This would probably be the cheapest way to solve some of this problem."
Currently, a study is underway related to providing water to the Odessa Sub-area of the Columbia Basin Project via existing facilities, which currently relies on groundwater from the Odessa Aquifer. Wells for irrigation have severely depleted the aquifer since the 1970s when the state allowed farmers who were expecting Columbia River water to tap into the aquifer. Unfortunately, Congress never funded this part of the Columbia Basin Project, but with the new push for water projects in eastern Washington, there is new hope for solutions to this decades-old problem.
"This fall we're hoping to make a fairly significant announcement of our first delivery to the Odessa Sub-area," said O'Keefe.
Water conservation is also an important part of the Columbia River Water Management Bill. Chandler, a Grant County farmer himself, worries that the state's "use it or lose it" water relinquishment law will defeat the state's water conservation goals. Under this law, the holder of a water right will lose the right to that water if there is no use within five years. The result: The flushing of large amounts of much potentially conservable water.
"The five-year look back is too short a period of time," said Chandler, who suggests that a 10-year period might work better.
Chandler says that he is encouraged by the new interest in solving eastern Washington's water problems, but he concludes with a note of caution.
"The $200 million appropriated for storage is just to fund the studies and preparations," Chandler said. "We haven't appropriated any money for storage. When we think of storage, we need to think of the future and what storage will bring, not just the expense."
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