State officials issue final report on Yakima River Basin water needs

YAKIMA, Wash. — The state Department of Ecology this morning issued a final environmental report on proposals to meet future Yakima River Basin water needs.

According to the document, the plan includes adding fish passage at basin dams, some new water storage, operational changes to improve fish passage, habitat improvements, water conservation and water marketing.

An initial gathering of basin stakeholders — irrigators, fish managers, environmental groups, the Yakama Nation, agency and elected officials — will meet June 30 to start putting a plan together to provide firmer irrigation supplies, water for fish and future municipal and industrial growth.

Officials hope to have a plan completed within 18 months.

The Ecology report is part of the Yakima River Basin storage feasibility study conducted jointly by it and the federal Bureau of Reclamation. (Ecology's final environmental impact statement on the Integrated Water Resources Management alternative can be viewed online.)

Reclamation officials concluded their part of the study earlier this year, deciding none of the proposed reservoirs the agency studied met federal guidelines.

The study included the massive Black Rock reservoir, proposed east of Yakima, that would have drawn water from the Columbia River to supply Lower Valley irrigation needs.

Ecology’s report suggests a renewed  review of enlarging Bumping Lake, west of Yakima, which has been studied and rejected for several decades.

Wymer, a possible pumped storage reservoir in the Yakima River Canyon north of Yakima, also is suggested.

Wymer was part of the bureau’s storage study but was rejected because it also failed to meet federal guidelines.

The June 30 meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at the Yakima Area Arboretum, 1401 Arboretum Drive. It is open to the public.

- David Lester