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On March 20, 2008, Governor Chris Gregoire signed legislation that will release the largest delivery of new water to towns and farms in the Columbia Basin, and for endangered salmon, in three decades. Historic partnership agreements with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation and the Spokane Tribe will allow up to 82,500 acre feet of water to be withdrawn from Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam beginning in 2008 and up to 132,000 acre feet of water in drought years. Colville Agreement (1.7MB pdf)Spokane Agreement (615KB pdf) More Information
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Incremental Storage Releases at Lake RooseveltThe Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will work together on the incremental storage releases at Lake Roosevelt which will draw down the lake by an additional foot in normal water years and 1.8 feet during drought years. The storage release will free up water to benefit municipal/industrial supply, the Odessa Subarea interruptible water right holders and instream flows. In non-drought years, 30,000 acre-feet will go to the Odessa Subarea, 25,000 acre-feet to municipal/industrial needs, and 27,500 acre-feet to augment instream flows (82,500 total). An additional 50,000 acre-feet will be released during drought years with 33,000 acre-feet of that release providing relief for interruptible water right holders and 17,000 acre-feet supplementing instream flows. |
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The Colville Confederated Tribes and Spokane Tribe of Indians are now in partnership with the State of Washington to provide new water from Lake Roosevelt for in-stream and out-of-stream uses in the Columbia River Basin. Ecology entered into an Agreement in Principle with the Colville Tribes in 2005 and worked with the Spokane Tribe to study opportunities for shared benefits from the storage releases.
The 2008 Legislature approved agreements with the Colville and Spokane Tribes and the Bureau of Reclamation to begin incremental releases from Lake Roosevelt in 2008.
The Lake Roosevelt incremental storage releases were identified as an early action item in the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Columbia River Management Plan and are addressed in Chapter 5 of that document.
On May 15, 2008, the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) released a draft supplemental environmental impact statement (Draft SEIS) to the public for comment. The Draft SEIS addresses the time and manner in which additional water will be released from Lake Roosevelt to enhance stream flows and to provide water to municipalities, irrigators in the Odessa Subarea, and interruptible water right holders. The Draft SEIS supplements the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Columbia River Management Plan issued by Ecology in February 2007. The Draft Supplemental EIS will provide a more thorough evaluation of impacts associated with additional releases of stored water from Lake Roosevelt than was presented in the Programmatic EIS.
Download the Draft Supplemental EIS |
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| Full Version (18 MB) | ||
| By Chapter: | ||
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Cover/Letter/Fact Sheet
(909 KB) - Table of Contents/Acronyms (62 KB) - Summary (58 KB) - Chapter 1 (260 KB) - Chapter 2 (445 KB) - Chapter 3 (1.6 MB) - Chapter 4 (1.2 MB) - Chapter 5 (98KB) - Chapter 6 (73 KB) |
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Appendix A
(871 KB) - Appendix B (70 KB) - Appendix C (97 KB) - Appendix D (77 KB) - Appendix E (67 KB) - Appendix F (58 KB)
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- Maps: Figures 1-3 (1.9 MB) Figures 4-6 (2.6 MB) Figures 7-9 (2.3 MB) Figures 10-12 (2.3 MB) Figures 13-15 (2.4 MB) Figures 16-18 (2.2 MB)
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Comment Period |
Comments on the Draft SEIS may be submitted in writing to:
Or by email at: dsan461@ecy.wa.gov (please use "Lake Roosevelt Comments" in the subject line) The
public comment period
is from May 15, 2008 to June 30, 2008. Comments must be
received or post marked by June 30, 2008 at 5 pm. In addition,
comments can be given verbally or in writing at open houses that
will be held at the following locations. |
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Open Houses |
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Monday, June 16,
2008 |
Tuesday, June 17,
2008 |
A timeline for this environmental review is shown below.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
