YBSA Monthly Report July, 2011
YBSA Monthly Report
July, 2011
YBSA Working With YRBWEP Work Group: Yakima Basin Storage Alliance (YBSA) continues to work with the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project (YRBWEP) Work Group to address the many problems that exist in the Yakima River Basin. The goals of the Integrated Plan include enhancement of the water supply and increasing fish populations in the Basin. The plan includes surface water storage projects: Wymer Reservoir in the Yakima River Canyon, taping into the inactive storage at Lake Kachess (water from the lake after irrigation water has been removed), constructing a new Bumping Reservoir enlarging the lake, and appraisal work on potential projects to transfer water from the Columbia River to the Yakima Basin possibly pumped storage.
The lack of an adequate water supply affects the economy and fish population of the Yakima River Basin. During dry years, farm income is reduced and crops are at risk. Future municipal and domestic water supplies are threatened because over appropriation of water rights make groundwater rights junior to most surface water users. Fish habitat, food sources and migration are affected as water flows throughout the year are in a state of flux.
Water for agriculture, municipal and domestic needs and fish are all concerns of YBSA. The Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan suggests inclusion of storage projects that are questionable. The increased water supply needed to complete some of the projects included in the Work Plan may never be achieved. The Yakima Basin has been without sufficient water for years and, with climate change information indicating more droughts, inter-basin exchange of water may be a solution that would solve the Yakima Basin’s problem for decades.
EIS Update: Presentations by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and Department of Ecology (DOE) at the July 13th YRBWEP Work Group meeting included a planning report/programmatic EIS update. Three categories will be included in the report: Habitat, Water Supply, and Environment. Presentations on the seven parts of the Integrated Plan will be on the BOR website. The final report on the Integrated Plan will be completed in the spring of 2012. A programmatic overview of the Work Plan will be provided in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). A specific EIS will be done on each project when that project is reviewed. YBSA’s asked if the Work Plan programmatic EIS still be valid when one or more of the specific projects included in the Work Plan no longer are valid and cannot be completed.
Scoping Comments: Eighty-Five scoping comments were received and staff is working on answering those comments.
Subcommittee Recommendations: The Watershed Land Conservation Subcommittee continues to develop a Work Plan and the implementation Subcommittee is preparing recommendations for the Work Group.
CRESP: YBSA met with Jim Waldo, Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP, and discussed the current progress of the Columbia Renewable Energy Storage Project (CRESP). The timeline is being extended because of litigation over Bonneville’s curtailment of wind production due to this spring’s high water-high wind events and the release of Chelan County PUD’s preliminary assessments of pumped storage sites in Chelan and Douglas Counties. The Chelan study shows that cost-benefit ratios for four of the nine sites studied were above 1.0 and two sites showed an even better cost-benefit ratio. YBSA will continue to move forward and develop a plan to examine pumped storage and an inter-basin exchange of water between the Columbia River and the Yakima Basin. Energy production and additional water for the Yakima Basin will benefit fish, agriculture, municipal and residential development, and will ensure that our basin has sufficient water for years of economic growth.
For additional information see www.ybsa.org