Study: $22 million spent on Yakima River Basin

Report says federal program has little to show for the money

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published October 2, 2001

YAKIMA -- In the past seven years, $22 million has been spent under a federal program to help fish and farmers in the Yakima River Basin, but a new study says it hasn't done enough to prevent future irrigation cutoffs here in orchard country.

Without well-defined goals, the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project can't fulfill its promise to meet the needs of both fish and people, the study says.

"Combining an improved, enforceable Yakima Enhancement Project with other actions could contribute to species recovery while helping to prevent the type of litigation and conflict that has recently occurred in the Klamath Basin," the study said.

Irrigation water was shut off last spring in the Klamath River Basin, leaving about 200,000 acres of farmland in southern Oregon and northern California high and dry to protect endangered sucker fish and threatened coho salmon.

It was the first shut-off for the federal irrigation project since it began delivering water in 1907, and prompted numerous protests.

The new study was prepared by Steve Wise, an environmental studies professor at the University of Oregon. It was financed with a grant from the Mountaineers Foundation in Seattle to the Northwest Water Law and Policy Project at Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

Wise said the Yakima enhancement project gives the basin something no other Northwest watershed has: A pot of federal money to fix problems.

"It is not so much a prediction that Yakima is on the same path," Wise said. "If Yakima irrigators, agencies and other interests can't come to a reconciliation and cooperative conservation plans, (Klamath) is laying out the consequences."

Dale Bambrick, regional habitat team leader for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the Yakima Valley is far ahead of the Klamath in responding to protected-fish issues. But, he added, problems are on the horizon if basin interests don't work together.

Steelhead and bull trout are listed as threatened species in the Yakima basin, under the Endangered Species Act.

"If we can't collaboratively agree on the kind of change that is necessary and figure out ways to mitigate and minimize effects on fish, there will be winners and losers," Bambrick said.

Congress approved the enhancement law in 1994. The project was first conceived in 1979 by state and Yakama Nation officials to avoid lawsuits brought on by the 1977 drought.

The Yakima River Basin feeds an expansive network that includes 464,000 irrigated acres in Yakima, Kittitas and Benton counties.

The enhancement's major goals are to help farmers modernize their water systems to conserve water and reduce the effects of water shortages. Some of the conserved water would be left in the stream to improve habitat for migratory fish. The law also authorized the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to purchase water and shift its use to bolster stream flows.

To date, no irrigation-conservation plans have been approved and implemented, and little water has been purchased, Wise found.

There has been progress in the purchase of both land and water for fish habitat, much of it in the last few months, said Tracey Yerxa, a land and water acquisition coordinator for the bureau in Yakima.

Enhancement money has been used to buy almost 900 acres of land, from the Teanaway River in Kittitas County to Union Gap in Yakima County. Purchase of another nearly 600 acres is pending.

When the legislation was written, "Congress had the idea we could just go out and buy water," Yerxa said. "We couldn't do that because so much of the water is owned by the irrigation districts. We had to look to small landowners to buy the land to get the water."

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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