  |
|
|
Department of Ecology News Release - June 11, 2008
08-164
YAKIMA – A new plea is being made for water to support youth camps and cabin owners who lack senior water rights in the Cascade Mountains.
A half dozen youth camps, hundreds of recreational homeowners, and other water users on White, Chinook and Snoqualmie mountain passes face a court order to shut off their water anytime the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation rations water to its Yakima Project members.
“Water supplies appear to be plentiful this year, but that’s small comfort when water was rationed during three of the last six years,” said Kelsey Collins, a water resources specialist with the Department of Ecology. “We’re making a public appeal to encourage a few irrigators to sell a portion of their water rights to help these youth camps and cabin owners.”
In 2007, the Legislature authorized $300,000 to acquire surface water rights for camps and cabin owners in the Yakima Basin to cover drinking, bathing and sanitary uses during low water years.
Ecology is appealing to senior water right holders who might be willing to sell a portion of their water to help camps and cabin owners. Among the camps that face shutoff are Dudley, Prime Time, Zarahemla, Ghormley, Roganunda, and Fife.
“The amount of water we need is small, but vital, especially for the summer camps that might be forced to close,” Collins said. “We’re talking to water right holders, taking out advertisements and issuing news releases describing the need to secure water for domestic uses.”
Collins notes the state is seeking to purchase already-adjudicated surface water rights that predate May 10, 1905, with diversions above Parker Dam that have been used in the last five years.
Anyone interested in exploring the option of selling a portion of a water right to help local camps and cabin owners is asked to contact Kelsey Collins, at 509-575-2640 or kesi461@ecy.wa.gov.
You may also visit this website for more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/cro/sb6861.html.
###
Media Contact: Joye Redfield-Wilder, 509-575-2610; jred461@ecy.wa.gov
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
