County commissioners approve of Yakima basin water plan

YAKIMA, Wash. -- It's full speed ahead on developing a plan to supply water for fish, farmers and cities in the Yakima River Basin in the decades to come.

The three Central Washington counties -- Yakima, Kittitas and Benton -- have all now committed to continue the planning process after six months of work appeared on the verge of being scuttled.

Concerns remain, primarily that new water storage be a key element in any final plan. But the counties want to see the effort continue, two of the nine area county commissioners said Monday.

At a Dec. 17 meeting in Yakima, commissioners of the three counties had said they needed more time or lacked authority to make a commitment. The work group also includes irrigators, the Yakama Nation, fish managers and state and federal agencies.

Now that commissioners have given their endorsements, the state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plan to announce later this week details of the next year of work.

The goal is to have a completed plan in place by October 2010 that calls for fish passage at basin dams, new storage, groundwater storage, habitat improvements, more water conservation and a market system for buying and selling water rights.

New storage might include an interbasin transfer from the Columbia River, a component Yakima County commissioners believe must be a part of the plan.

A transfer of water from the Columbia River would require construction of a dam to hold the water.

"The most important element of the plan for Yakima County is Columbia River water and additional storage facilities off-stream," said county commission Chairman Rand Elliott.

He added that the county believes a new dam and reservoir is critical to maintaining a reliable and dependable source of water.

Yakima County commissioners have proposed Columbia River water be pumped into a reservoir to be erected in Selah Creek, north of Yakima.

Benton County Commissioner Max Benitz said his county also wants to see storage that will provide junior water users at least a 70 percent supply of water, bolstered stream flows for fish and water for cities to grow. Bringing in Columbia River water also is favored by Benton County.

"We feel additional water supply is a top priority," Benitz said. "We think that direct pumping from the Columbia River is a good step forward for us to finalize a plan."

Once the proposed plan is ready, there will be an environmental review and public comment before the work group seeks state and federal funding, said Derek Sandison, director of the state Department of Ecology's Office of the Columbia River.

The plan would be implemented over the next 30 years, and total cost would be billions of dollars.

"We will go through a series of modeling efforts to look at how well the elements of the preliminary plan would address water-supply and aquatic resource problems," Sandison said.

State and federal officials launched the planning effort after a five-year, $18 million study of new water storage ended with rejection of the proposed Black Rock reservoir east of Yakima and two other storage concepts.

The Yakima River Basin has seen two droughts in the last eight years. And water shortages could become more frequent if climate change results in declining snowpacks in the years ahead.

The three-county basin relies on snowpack -- commonly referred to as the sixth reservoir -- to supply early-season irrigation water. The five existing reservoirs hold less than half of what is needed annually.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.