YBSA Monthly Report November, 2010
YBSA Monthly Report
November, 2010
Meeting with Virgil Lewis, Sr.: YBSA executive committee met with Virgil Lewis, Sr., member of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and Chairman of the Fish, Wildlife, Law and Order Committee, to review items that the Yakama Nation and YBSA have in common. Some issues have not been resolved by the Work Group developing the integrated plan. Subordination of power generation, use of Columbia River water, and mitigation plans have not been agreed upon. Virgil mentioned the need for more surface water for the Wapato Irrigation Project, the need to reclassify the District so grants can be obtained, additional funding for repairs of the WIP and to make the idle land on the Reservation usable to improve the economy. YBSA supports Yakama Nation’s goal. Improving the economy on the Reservation benefits everyone in the Yakima River Basin.
Request of Model Run: YBSA sent a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation requesting a model run to estimate salmon production in the Yakima Basin based upon a future that includes enough water to fully engage all potential habitat features. A plan for maximizing the number of returning salmonids to the Yakima Basin would be of great benefit to the Yakama Nation.
Pumped Storage and Wind Generation: Sid Morrison met with Jim Waldo, a Tacoma attorney who has worked in the natural resource arena across the Pacific Northwest for the last thirty years, to discuss the possibility of a pumped storage project using the Black Rock configuration. Pumped storage and wind integration programs are being developed throughout the west and would buy down the cost of storage. There is a large variation in the price of power, when there is high water and wind at the same time power is discarded. The discarded power could be used to pump water.
Work Group Meeting Information: At the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project Work Group meeting the Integrated Plan updated hydrologic modeling results without on of the three major storage projects would provide; less water for irrigation and would not meet the 70% prorationing water supply goal, less water for instream flow benefits, and less carry over storage. The effects of potential climate change on the Integrated Plan benefits would reduce summer flows and increase needs for storage, would deliver comparable benefits under the predicted climate change scenarios, and not meet the 70% prorationing goal under moderately adverse scenarios.
Two thirds of the water needed for out of stream use and instream needs is provided by the snowpack in the Cascade Mountains that water the Yakima Basin. The other one third is met by water stored in our five major reservoirs. With climate change potentially reducing snowpack additional stored water will be required to meet the current water needs. Storage makes all the other projects included in the Integrated Plan possible and enhances the economy of the Yakima Basin.
The following cost information was provided for the November Work Group meeting.
November 17, 2010
Integrated Plan Construction and Annual Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Costs
Construction Costs Cost/acre-foot Annual O&M
Volume Estimate Lower Upper
(acre-feet) (million dollars) (dollars) ($1,000)
Water Supply
Storage
Bumping Lake Enlargement (New) 156,300 402.5 322.0 563.5 2,600 210.0
Wymer (Option 1, pump to Wymer) 162,000 1,309.7 1,047.8 1,833.6 8,100 3,980.0
Kachess Inactive (tunnel) 200,000 253.8 203.0 355.3 1,300 270.0
Groundwater Infiltration 100,000 74.6 59.7 104.5 750 2,145.0
Cle Elum 3-foot raise 14,700 16.8 13.5 23.6 1,100 500.0
Total 633,000 2,057.4 1,646.0 2,880.5 3,300 7,105.0
Water Conservation
Agriculture
Enhanced Basin-Wide Program 170,000 549.9 439.9 769.9 3,200
KRD Canals (Main-South Branch) 35.9 28.7 50.3 25.0
Wapatox Canal (Option 1) 59.3 47.5 83.1 210.0
Municipal and Domestic 1.0
Total 645.1 516.1 903.3 236.0
Total Water Supply 2,702.5 2,162.1 3,783.8 7,341.0
Specific Fish Enhancement
Fish Passage 324.3 259.4 454.1 2,640.0
Fish Habitat
Tributaries 180.0 144.0 252.0
Mainstem 279.7 223.8 391.6
Keechelus to Kachess pipeline 190.7 152.5 266.9 90.0
Total Specific Fish 974.7 779.7 1,364.5 2,730.0
Future Study
Columbia River Pump/Storage 3.8 3.0 5.3
Total Integrated Plan 3,681.0 2,944.8 5,153.6 10,071.0
Options
Wymer (Option 2, Thorp Pump) 541.2 433.0 757.7 3,390.0
Kachess Inactive (Pump) 225.7 180.6 316.0 590.0
Wapatox Canal (Option 2) 82.1 65.7 115.0 210.0
Construction costs: “Estimate” is that prepared by the consultants and includes contingencies plus 30% for design and permit costs. “Lower” is -20% of the “Estimate” and “Upper” is +40% of the “Estimate”.
Cost/acre-foot: “Estimate” divided by “Volume” (capacity) or in the case of agriculture water conservation the estimated “saved water”.
Bumping Lake Enlargement: Total capacity is 190,000 acre-feet which includes 33,700 acre-feet of existing capacity (replacement) and 155,300 acre-feet of new capacity.
Options: Measures that could be substituted for those listed in the table; i.e Kachess Inactive (pump) substituted for Kachess Inactive (tunnel). The inclusion of these would change the total costs of the Integrated Plan shown in the table.
See updated information that includes video of salmon spawning in the Yakima River Basin at www.ybsa.org