Irrigation project faces hurdles, state official says

MOSES LAKE – Gov. Christine Gregoire is committed to seeing completion of the million-acre Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, but there are many obstacles, the director of the state Department of Ecology has told farmers.

Columbia Basin irrigators must speak with one voice if they want to see the project’s completion, Ecology Director Jay Manning told the Columbia Basin Development League at its annual meeting Wednesday.

Congress originally authorized the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project – which is fed by water impounded behind Grand Coulee Dam and pumped into Banks Lake – to irrigate about 1.1 million acres south of the dam to the Tri-Cities.

Only about 600,000 acres were developed before funding for large Western water projects became anathema to Congress.

The most pressing problem is declining water levels in the Odessa Sub-area Aquifer, which has become a priority for state officials, Manning said.

“We have a whole series of water disputes on the Columbia River, from the bottom of the river to the top, in terms of water supply, water quality … salmon recovery,” Manning said after his speech.

Completion of the second half of the Columbia Basin Project could take a long time, Manning cautioned.

Obtaining water from the river requires approval from parties such as the federal Bureau of Reclamation and Indian tribes.

Continued efficiency and conservation are the easiest and cheapest means of getting additional water for crops, he said.

Believing they eventually would get water from planned expansion of the irrigation project, state officials began allowing farmers to draw water from the Odessa aquifer in the 1970s.

“For the Department of Ecology and for the governor, the Odessa water-supply issue has become our number one priority,” Manning said, adding that “we’re going to focus on that one first.”

The Columbia Basin Development League formed in 1964 to press for full development of the project, Chairman Roger Thieme said.

Some have questioned the league’s willingness to concentrate on the short-term issues, he said. Thieme contends the league’s Columbia Basin Water Initiative, formed earlier this year to support moves to ensure more surface water is made available, shows it can take the shorter view.

A new coalition has proposed an aquifer recharge – injection of Columbia River water into the ground to raise the water level in the Odessa aquifer – while a longer-term solution is developed.