YBSA Monthly Report March, 2014

YBSA Monthly Report

March, 2014

The following was presented at the Integrated Plan Workgroup meeting:

A feasibility study on the Kachess Reservoir Drought Relief Project continues to determine the route of a tunnel from Lake Keechelus to Lake Kachess. A second route is being considered to evaluate subsurface conditions and to reduce pressure on the proposed tunnel.

A study is progressing to determine how to create fish passage to Box Canyon Creek and passage between upper and lower Lake Kachess. With the additional draw down of lower Kachess a steep-pass fish way will need to be created. The passage will have numerous resting pools along the way so the fish can travel between the lakes.

The Kachess pumping plant continues to be evaluated. The proposed intake is at the bottom of lower Lake Kachess with a tunnel to a pumping plant. The pumping plant on the northeastern side of the reservoir connected to a pipe that would transport water to the Kachess River below the dam.

Once the design of the Keechelus to Kachess pipeline, the fish passage between the lower and upper lake and the Kachess pumping plant to withdraw inactive storage water from the original lake to the Kachess River and put it below Kachess Dam many unanswered questions remain.

• How will the drawdown be      refilled during consecutive drought years?
• Do the watersheds above      Keechelus and Kachess provide the water needed during severe and moderate      climate change?
• Is the drought relief      water (200,000 a/f) to be used for out of stream use (agriculture) or      instream flow (fish) and who will pay for the water?
• How will the cost of      construction, mitigation, maintenance and operation be distributed among      the Federal, State, irrigation, and fish interests?
• A benefit/cost evaluation      needs to be completed.

Additional technical project updates at the Workgroup meeting included drilling at the proposed Wymer and Bumping Dam sites, Lake Cle Elum fish passage design, ground water storage, conservation and habitat enhancement projects, and Tieton Dam fish passage facilities. Reports may appear in the future at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/index.html

Go to www.ybsa.org for additional information.