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Permitting Water from the Lake Roosevelt Storage Releases

Latest News...
11/22/11 - OCR Issuing the First Water Rights from the Lake Roosevelt Storage Releases -- The Office of Columbia River (OCR) is issuing the first water rights from the water supply developed by the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases Project. The water rights, totaling 183.2 acre-feet, will support communities like the city of Pateros, homes in Lincoln County, a recreational park near the Beebe Bridge in Douglas County and a potato washing facility in Walla Walla County.
     More Info:
          First Permits Interactive Map
          Press Release

OCR has begun issuing water rights from the Columbia River for municipal, domestic, and industrial uses. The Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases Project is the source of the water. See the list of granted water water rights at the bottom of this page.

Program Details

Application processing is based on the application priority date, qualifying purposes of use, and reasonable quantities necessary to complete the project.  Permittees are required to reimburse Ecology for the cost of developing the mitigation for their permit.  For this project, mitigation was secured through a water service contract with the Bureau of Reclamation for releases of water from Lake Roosevelt at $35 per acre-foot per year.  Permittees must sign a water service contract with Ecology of not more than $35 per acre-foot per year.  Ecology may consider whether a lower recovery rate is appropriate based on hardship criteria.  Local governments serving 25,000 or less people, and having a water bill of greater than 2% of the median household income may qualify. All permits will also be provisioned to require the water user to install a fish screen at all diversions, meter and report water use, and may include other provisions as necessary.

List of Applications

Ecology staff compiled a list of applications that appear to meet the water allocation requirements listed in the SEPA Addendum for the Lake Roosevelt Supplemental EIS (pages 9-11) and the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases Program (The specific requirements are found in chapter 2.4.1.2). The applicant names are as listed in Ecology’s files, although the current applicant may not be the same. Digital images of the applications are available for download by clicking on the Application Number link below.

The following list is current as of March 16, 2012. Applications may be removed from, or added to, the list as further investigation warrants.