Water plan would help restore fish

A comprehensive approach that includes some new storage, fish passage and improved habitat for fish is being advanced by the state Ecology Department as a way to improve water supplies and restore fish in the Yakima River Basin.

Among the lengthy list of suggested improvements are adding fish ladders at all basin dams and expanding Bumping Lake along Chinook Pass, a controversial proposal that has been floated -- and rejected -- for decades.

The agency is seeking public comment on its plan through Jan. 16. Ultimately, the state's proposal will be added to a larger study by federal officials that looks solely at new storage, including the huge Black Rock reservoir.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation is scheduled to release a final environmental impact statement on the storage study on Dec. 19.

The five-year, approximately $18 million study has analyzed adding water storage to firm up water supplies for irrigators, restore migratory fish and meet future needs for cities and industry.

Black Rock is a proposed 1.6 million acre-foot reservoir in the Black Rock Valley, east of Yakima. Black Rock would draw water from the Columbia River, allowing Yakima River water to be used for enhancing fish flows.

But agency officials said Wednesday that Ecology believes a comprehensive approach beyond simply adding storage provides the best chance for success.

"We think it makes more sense than saying we have one tool and that is storage and we don't think that is a reasonable approach," said Derek Sandison, director of the Office of Columbia River, a recently created agency to oversee water programs in the entire Columbia River Basin.

Ecology's stance is echoed by the Roza Irrigation District which, along with the Yakama Nation, has urged a broader look at the basin's needs than just Black Rock.

Ric Valicoff, chairman of the district's board of directors, said Wednesday he had not yet read the state report. But he added the broader approach is better.

"You see it in the fact that a lot of interested parties are at the table bringing in their views and agreeing on something we will all get something out of," he said.

Representatives of a local group that favors Black Rock also had not read the report as of Wednesday. The group, the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance, had no immediate comment.

Sandison said the state report, a supplement to an earlier report on storage options, is in response to public comments that more than storage needed to be considered to solve basin water shortages.

The state report looks at four major improvements:

* Fish ladders at Cle Elum, Bumping, Kecheelus, Kachess and Rimrock dams;

* Irrigation improvements to the Wapato Irrigation Project, the Kittitas Reclamation Project, altering power production at Roza and Chandler power plants, and improving the Wapatox irrigation canal;

* New or expanded storage at Bumping Lake, Wymer in the Yakima River Canyon, Pine Hollow in the Ahtanum Valley, and modifying river operations as a result of new storage;

* Fish habitat improvements by reconnecting flood plains, restoring habitat along rivers, and improving fish passage and flows in smaller tributaries.

The state plan can be viewed online at: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/cr_yak_storage.html.

Comments on the report can be submitted through Jan. 16 to: Washington State Department of Ecology; 15 W. Yakima Ave., Suite 200; Yakima, WA 98902.