YBSA Monthly Report January, 2015

YBSA Monthly Report

January, 2015

Kachess Drought Relief and Keechelus to Kachess Conveyance: One of the proposed storage sites in the Yakima Basin listed in the Integrated Plan is to pump an additional 200,000 a/f of water from Lake Kachess below the normal annual drawdown. The Integrated Plan was developed to provide more water for fish, agriculture, and municipal use in the Yakima Basin.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed action of implementing the Kachess Reservoir Drought Relief Pumping Plant (KDRPP) and the Keechelus to Kachess Conveyance (KCC) alone or in combination is available. A Bull Trout Enhancement (BTE) package in the tributaries above the two reservoirs as well as throughout the Yakima Basin has been added. The proposed project creates a major change in the environment in the Kachess and Keechelus Basins adversely impacting slack water recreation, lake fishing, and shoreline camping.

Public comments can be submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation by March 1, 2015. The DEIS is very voluminous and difficult to track concerns and issues that makes it difficult to identify the severity of the potential impacts on the current resources. For example, the DEIS compares the No Action and Action Alternatives with continuation of the historical hydrologic conditions in detail, but is lacking when it comes to similar detailed information on reservoir draw down, refill durations, impacts on reservoir fishery, bull trout tributaries, and general visual quality of the area for the moderately adverse and more adverse climate change scenarios.

Benefit-Cost-Analysis of the Yakima River Basin Integrated Plan Project: The report was completed by the State of Washington Water Research Center, Washington State University. The following are conclusions presented to the Integrated Plan Work Group at the December 17^th meeting:

1. Individual storage and conservation does not pass the benefit-to-cost (B/C) test as part of a full Integrated Plan implementation.
2. Cle Elum raise approaches B/C viability alone in the most adverse drought scenario only; KKC-KDRPP also, less so (and with more caveats).
3. Market gains from trade are predictability substantial with active market development.
4. Fish passage projects are the most likely to satisfy and B/C test.See the Bureau of Reclamation website at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/index.html for the complete DEIS.The language in the DEIS does not address the issue of is there enough water annually to provide an adequate and reliable water supply for the Yakima Basin.A link to the complete DEIS is posted on the www.ybsa.org website.Visit our website at www.ybsa.org

See the Bureau of Reclamation website at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/index.html for the complete DEIS.

The language in the DEIS does not address the issue of is there enough water annually to provide an adequate and reliable water supply for the Yakima Basin.

A link to the complete DEIS is posted on the www.ybsa.org website.