Office of Columbia River Home > YRBWEP

Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan

Working Group

In June 2009, Ecology and Reclamation brought representatives from the Yakama Nation, irrigation districts, environmental organizations, and federal, state, county, and city governments together to form the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project (YRBWEP) Working Group to help develop a consensus-based solution to the basin’s water problems.

The goal is to seek authorization and funding from both the U.S. Congress and the Washington State Legislature to begin implementing projects outlined in the integrated plan. The work group adopted the plan in 2011 that led to the preparation of the EIS released today. Individual projects will each receive specific environmental review. The document serves as an umbrella framework for the entire plan.

The plan will be further refined based on the comments received during the programmatic environmental review and forwarded to the U.S. Department of Interior for authorization and policy consideration by Congress and the state Legislature in 2013.

The Plan includes the following elements:

• Fish Passage
• Fish Habitat Enhancement
• Modifying Existing Structures and Operations
• Surface Storage
• Market-Based Reallocation
• Groundwater Storage
• Enhanced Water Conservation

For more information about the plan, see  the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement  for the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan.

YRBWEP Working Group Documents

•  Proposed Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (April 2011)
• Technical Reports
• Proposed Integrated Water Resource Management Focus Sheet (March 2011)
• Integrated Water Resource Management Summary Support Document - (March 2011)
• Preliminary Integrated Water Resource Management Plan for the Yakima River Basin (2009)
• Meeting Notes, Handouts, and Presentations

Yakima River Basin Environmental Reports and Documents

• Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Plan Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (March 2012)
• Executive Summary for the Final PEIS (March 2012)
•  Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. (November 2011)
•  Executive Summary -- Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. (November 2011)
• Determination of Significance and Request for Comments on Scope of EIS for the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan  (April 2011)
• Cle Elum Fish Passage Facilities and Fish Reintroduction Project Final EIS (April 2011)
• Cle Elum Fish Passage Facilities and Fish Reintroduction Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (2010)
• Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Alternative EIS (2009)
• Yakima River Basin Water Storage Feasibility Study Planning Report and EIS (2008)
• Enhanced Water Conservation Alternative - Yakima River Basin Water Storage Feasibility Study - PowerPoint (2008)
• Yakima River Basin Storage Alternatives Appraisal Assessment (2006)
• Black Rock Assessment (2006)

More Information

A Water Plan For Fish, Families And Farmers (Northwest Public Radio)