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Department of Ecology News Release - November 15, 2006
06-238
YAKIMA - A new report from the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) takes an initial look at how water from the Columbia River is being distributed now and how much water might be needed to support the region in the future.
The report, delivered this week to the Legislature, is required under the state's new Columbia River water law. It is available online at www.ecy.wa.gov, click on the "Managing our Water" icon.
Written in two sections, the report includes a water-supply inventory, and a long-term water supply and demand forecast. It also identifies conservation and storage projects that might be used to meet future water needs.
"These reports represent our first steps toward building a sustainable water supply program for Eastern Washington," explained Ecology Director Jay Manning. "Our job next year is to improve what we know about the demand for water, and develop specific projects that will benefit both in-stream conditions and provide water for farms and cities."
The law charges Ecology with developing water supplies to support new municipal, domestic, industrial and irrigation water rights. In addition, it gives priority to delivering surface water to the area served by the declining Odessa aquifer, and ensuring that some 300 water-right holders on the Columbia River do not have their water supply "interrupted" or curtailed during low water years.
The law also authorizes funding for storage and conservation activities designed to shore up in-stream water supplies and provide water for new out-of-stream uses.
The water supply inventory evaluates how much water is being diverted for out-of-stream uses in Washington and Oregon within a one-mile corridor of the river from the Bonneville Dam to the Canadian border in Stevens County.
It examines how much water has been authorized for withdrawal by looking at existing water-right data bases in both Washington and Oregon. It also takes into consideration data from the U.S. Geological Survey's inventory of actual water use, conducted every five years, and presents findings from Washington State University (WSU) on future agricultural demand.
Current demands for water identified in the report range from an estimate of 5 million acre-feet of actual use per year, up to a maximum of 8 million acre-feet of water authorized for diversion.
Approximately 1-million acre-feet of maximum use has been allocated by the state of Oregon. For perspective, annual runoff in the Columbia River averages 200 million acre-feet as it enters the Pacific Ocean.
Agricultural uses account for nearly 80 percent of the water withdrawals authorized in the one-mile management zone in Washington State; just 7 percent of the total quantity is associated with municipal and domestic use.
To help identify future water needs, the long-term water demand forecast tallies up how much water is being requested in pending water-right applications and also examines growth projections made by municipalities and agricultural interests.
Forecasts range from a relatively stable need for water over the next 20 years to a scenario that recognizes the potential for more than 750,000 acres of new irrigation if, for instance, the second half of the Columbia Basin Project were to be completed and a large storage facility were built.
Based on the backlog of current applications for irrigation water rights on file with Ecology, some additional 60,000 acres of land could be irrigated if those water right requests were to be approved.
Under the framework provided by the Columbia River law, demands for new water will be met by improving how water is managed at existing projects, and making investments in new conservation and storage projects.
Using information provided by the Washington Conservation Commission and local conservation districts, the report catalogs several thousand conservation projects that could provide opportunities for allocating saved water for new uses.
Storage opportunities identified in the report include new large storage facilities (1-million acre-feet or greater), new small storage facilities (less than 1-million acre-feet), modifying existing storage facilities, and aquifer storage and recovery.
Information in the reports will receive ongoing updates and ultimately be used by decision-makers to determine which water supply projects to support, and potentially fund, to meet future water needs.
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Media contact: Joye Redfield-Wilder, public information manager, (509) 575-2610
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
