YBSA Monthly Report September, 2006

YBSA Monthly Report
September, 2006

Executive Committee: The executive committee met and discussed the successful Roundtable for Salmon Restoration, holding another Roundtable on Engineering and Conservation issues in the Tri-Cities, and the material and operation of the YBSA booth at the Central Washington State Fair.

Recreation Study and Questionnaire: The Recreation Study is progressing nicely and the consultant provided us with a collage of pictures of recreation activities around a map of Black Rock Reservoir for the Fair. A questionnaire is being completed by fairgoers to show the need for water type recreation development in the Yakima Basin.

Fair Information: Information available at the Fair include Black Rock Project Overview; Project Details and Other Items of Interest in Black Rock’s size, structure, and purpose; Benefits of the project; and a petition requesting the Bureau of Reclamation continue and expedite the completion of the Storage Study for the Yakima Basin

9/21/06
YBSA meeting with BOR office in Yakima
Sid, Charlie, Jerry, Kim and Norbert

The BOR is investigating Wymer at the request of fisheries interests, Department of Ecology and Irrigation districts. They think that in average years 90k could be stored there after being released from the upper reservoirs. That water would then be available in peak summer months to be released in summer for irrigation supplies. They are also investigating a pump back solution from the mouth of the Yakima at the Columbia River back up to the Roza and SVID near Konnowac Pass; they estimate 600 cfs additional irrigation in the dry years, 1200 cfs in the wet ones

Sid informed the Bureau that our recreational study is proceeding with a questionnaire which will be used in the fair booth this year. And that we have initiated a study of the energy storage feasibility concept and that Energy North West will document this and we would like to have it included in their report

They said they received a letter from the irrigation districts which requested no alternative be removed just because it did not satisfy all the criteria as required in the Federal Legislation authorizing the study. Jerry said the Secretary has instructed the BOR not to investigate those projects that do not yield a positive cost benefit ratio.

Jerry confirmed that no irrigation project had made it through P&G’s Cost/Benefit Ratio since the Carter years, even though many had been built. The difference was that those that were built garnered enough local support to pass Congress. He also said that municipal projects did not have to go through a cost benefit analysis.

Jerry said that the Kennewick pump exchange report is progressing and will be out soon. The benefit to fish will be difficult to assess and that they will have some EDT model numbers out for it in February. Fish benefits will be justified with text.

We discussed the WSJ article from the front page of the Tuesday edition which featured the lack of success in recovering Salmon in the Columbia even though $9 Billion has been spent. Obviously there are national concerns over the ineffective expenditures to recover Salmon. We also discussed the USGS ground water report that was reported in the Yakima Herald on Monday that stated that the ground water use had grown considerably to approximately 400,000 ac-ft. Jerry speculated that ground water adjudication was going to happen to the Yakima Basin soon. Charlie thought Black Rock will go much further to alleviate this problem that any other solution, and the withdrawal of ground water is a measure of how much in deficit our surface water supplies are.