YBSA Monthly Report October, 2012
YBSA Monthly Report
October, 2012
Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan: The following is a portion of the Executive Summary of the Integrated Plan:
The goals of the Integrated Plan are to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat; provide increased operational flexibility to manage instream flows to meet ecological objectives, and improve the reliability of the water supply for irrigation, municipal supply and domestic uses. A Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) analyzing broad effects of the Integrated Plan on environmental resources was issued in 2012 (Reclamation and Ecology 2012d).
Funding for the projects that make up the Integrated Plan are expected to be cost shared among a wide range of partners. Even though this Study utilizes traditional economic tools and analyses (Principles and Guidelines), the Integrated Plan is not intended to be funded as a typical Reclamation project. It is anticipated that the State ofWashingtonwould continue to be a cost-share partner in funding implementation of many of the elements of the Integrated Plan, as well as local governments and other parties. At this time, however, specific cost-sharing provisions between local, State, Federal governments, as well as other partners, have not been determined.
The Integrated Plan includes seven elements: 1) reservoir fish passage; 2) structural and operational changes to existing facilities; 3) surface water storage; 4) groundwater storage; 5) habitat/watershed protection and enhancement; 6) enhanced water conservation; and 7) market reallocation. It addresses current water resource and habitat problems, while providing an adaptive management framework to address potential future changes in water needs or hydrology, including potential climate change effects.
Capital costs of the Integrated Plan are estimated to be between $3.2 and $5.4 billion, with a most probable cost estimate of approximately $4.2 billion, expressed in 2012 dollars. These costs include permitting, design, environmental analyses, construction of infrastructure projects, implementation of programmatic activities, and environmental mitigation. The range was developed using cost-risk assessment to consider uncertainty and risk factors for each of the six largest projects to generate probabilistic estimates of construction costs. Additional costs of approximately $140 million are identified for interest during construction. Annual Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs are expected to be approximately $12 million in 2012 dollars once all projects and programs from the Integrated Plan are fully operational.
For the complete summary go to : http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/plan/framework.pdf
Sockeye Salmon Run Biggest Ever by Jim Fossett: If you cast aside the inconvenient fact that monitoring sockeye salmon runs is not an exact science and entertain talk around town it’s clear locals visiting Salmon La Sac Highway’s French Cabin Creek Bridge, Cooper Lake Bridge and Salmon La Sac Bridge are seeing more spawning salmon than ever before.
“We trucked-in 10,000 to Lake Cle Elum this summer,” said Yakama Nation fish passage biologist Brian Saluskin, “the largest load since 2009 when we started the program with 1,000 fish. That increased to 2,500 in 2010 and jumped to 4,100 in 2011.”
Saluskin pointed out a survey conducted last year revealed 3,400 females spawned along the river bottom above Lake Cle Elum. This year, a September report put the number at 1,500 and climbing.
“The brighter ones are fresh from the lake. The darker ones, the ones that look more beat up, have been up river longer. AtCooperBridgeyou’re going to see a lot of four-year-olds mixed with a few five-year-olds.”
The sockeye salmon run for next year is projected as very minimal, which would impact how many Saluskin and his crew can truck to Lake Cle Elum from Priest Rapids Dam on theColumbia River, where all the salmon he’s fetched for the program have come from.
We’re probably looking at 1,500 next year for trucking to the lake. But you know how predictions go. Everything could change.
As Saluskin noted, the spawning ritual provided an anomaly this year.
“We found sockeye nests in the shallows nearSpeelyiBeach. Actually, beach –spawners are more prevalent inCanada. They clear off san to a depth where they reach cobble rock and then they cover up their eggs with whatever rock they’re able to use. Obviously, we ask people to leave them alone – alive or dead.”
With the first sockeye run returning from the Pacific in a couple years, the fish will need help. Funding for the approved $81M Cle Elum Dam fish passage hasn’t yet materialized, but Saluskin said his team would be ready to trap and truck them over.
“We sill have hope for the passage,” he said. “As long as there is a demand for water in the valley, there’s hope.”
“There’s always been talk of increasing water storage a Lake Cle Elum. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) is suggesting another three feet or so. If they do that, some kind of fish passage has to accompany the project.”
Saluskin said there has been a considerable investment of funds to get thelakeCleElum Dam fish passage through engineering design and environmental impact study phases.
“That represents a lot of work, so they’re not going to just let the project go by the wayside.”
At this writing, a tabletop model of the fish passage proposed for Lake Cle Elum Dam is undergoing rounds of tests in a tank inDenverunder supervision of BOR scientists and engineers.
“The next phase is to build a life-size model and put fish in it to see how they do,” said Saluskin, “and we’ve got another fish passage meeting on the calendar before the end of the year, so the project is still moving forward.”
Story was found in the Northern Kittitas County Tribune Cle Elum, Washington
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