Water Conservation in the Columbia River Basin

Conservation Projects Benefiting Fish

• Barker Ranch - An open canal was converted to a closed pipe system. The increased efficiency allows the Benton County ranch to divert less water from the Yakima, adding an additional 6,436 ac-ft of water to stream flows when fish need it most.

• Manastash Water Ditch Association - An earthen unlined ditch will be replaced by a pipe. The resulting gain in efficiency will add 454 ac-ft to stream flows.

Conservation Projects Benefiting the Odessa Subarea

• Columbia Basin Irrigation Districts Coordinated Conservation Plan -- Ecology provided $30,000 to the irrigation districts to develop a strategy to coordinate and maximize water conservation opportunities in each district.

• Columbia Basin Irrigation District Piping – Districts conserve approximately 2000 ac-ft of water by converting open canals and ditches to a piped system.

Conservation Projects That May Yield Water for New Water Rights

• Conservation Commission Pilot Project – OCR provided $1 million the Washington State Conservation Commission to build up to 3 on-farm conservation projects to evaluate retiming of return flows for issuance of new permits.

• Franklin Conservation District Irrigation Water Management – OCR is providing funding to Franklin CD to develop a program to capture water conserved through irrigation water management practices. It is estimated that the methods studied could yield as much as 394,400 ac-ft of water savings.

• Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association Voluntary Regional Agreement – CSRIA and OCR will fund three conservation projects as a pilot to measure water savings. If enough water is saved, new water rights will be issued based on those savings and on any other mitigation water that is acquired.