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First allocation of water releases:Two “report of examination” (ROEs) documents were delivered on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, to Bill McDonald, the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s (Bureau) Pacific Northwest regional director. Ecology’s decisions outline how 82,500 acre-feet of water from Lake Roosevelt will be distributed throughout the central Columbia Basin. Issuing the documents triggers a formal 30-day appeal period. The state will tap into a 1938 reservoir right now held by the Bureau to bolster municipal and industrial supplies, provide replacement water to some farmers in the Odessa Subarea where aquifers are declining, and provide stream flow enhancements for fisheries. The decisions represent the first allocation from a total of 132,500 acre-feet of water the state proposes to release from Lake Roosevelt as part of the Columbia River Basin Water Management Program’s goal of developing new water supplies in the region. Details of the plan are addressed in a final supplemental environmental impact statement released in August. Ecology issued permits on December 1, 2008 to allow the Bureau to release the water. News Release on ROEs
Final Supplemental EIS released August 29, 2008 Appeals filedOn October 23, 2008, Vision For Our Future, the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Columbia Riverkeeper filed an appeal on the ROEs with the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB). The plaintiffs withdrew their appeals and the cases were officially closed by the PCHB on February 23, 2009. On December 1st, the appellants filed for an injunction in federal court to prevent the Bureau from taking any action under the permits. That case is still pending.
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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Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation and the Spokane Tribe will allow up to 82,500 acre feet of water to be withdrawn from Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam beginning in 2008 and up to 132,000 acre feet of water in drought years.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.
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Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released a Final Environmental Assessment
(EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for implementation of
the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases Project. The purpose of
the project is to improve water management in the Columbia River Basin
by releasing additional water from Lake Roosevelt to meet objectives
established by the Columbia River Water Management Act. To
learn more or to download the Draft Environmental Assessment go to the
