American Water Resources Association--Washington Chapter

Washington Section AWRA Annual Conference
Courtyard by Marriott Columbia Point
Richland, WA
September 29, 2005 10:00-3:30pm

"Black Rock Reservoir: Is additional storage the only answer for the Yakima basin?"

Time	Policy Dialogue Program in Brief
10:00	Tom Martin, President AWRA Washington Chapter opens “A Water Resources Policy Dialogue”
	Keynote Speaker Kim McCartney, Manager Bureau of Reclamation, Yakima Basin Storage Study
10:45	Panel of experts:
	Charlie De la Chapelle, Grower, Vice Chairman, Yakima Basin Storage Alliance
	Ken Hammond (Problem Definition & Dialogue), Professor of Geography (ret.), Central Washington University
	Gary Ballew (Presentation Materials), Deputy County Administrator, Benton County
	Rob Masonis, Senior Director, NW Regional Office American Rivers
12:00	Break for Box Lunch
12:30	Question and Answer Session
1:00	Breackout Groups
3:00	Group Reports and Closing Remarks
Click here for Registration Form

AWRA-WA held their second Water Resource Policy Dialogue of the year on September 29, 2005 in Richland, Washington. The dialogue, focused on the proposed Black Rock Reservoir in the Yakima basin. This topic was chosen as a result of its high level of interest to water re-source professionals in Washington State.

In 2003, Congress authorized and appropriated funds for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to initi-ate a “feasibility study of options for additional water storage in the Yakima River Basin with emphasis on Black Rock Reservoir.” The study is to assess the benefit of storage to endangered and threatened fish, irrigated agriculture, and municipal water supply. The authorization pre-cludes the storage study from considering a comprehensive range or package of storage and non-storage alternatives for achieving the de-sired benefits. Therefore, AWRA-WA spon-sored this Water Resource Policy Dialogue to provide an opportunity for water resource pro-fessionals and stakeholders to discuss:

Water resource problems and opportunities in the Yakima Basin
Criteria for evaluation of alternatives
Alternatives for solving the problems and taking advantage of the opportunities
Whether Black Rock Reservoir addresses the problems and opportunities identified
How Black Rock Reservoir rates against the evaluation criteria

The dialogue began with a speaker session to provide participants background on the study and some of the water resource issues. Kim McCartney, Bureau of Reclamation man-ager of the Yakima Basin Storage Feasibility Study, was the keynote speaker. He explained that the Yakima River Basin Water Storage Fea-sibility Study is examining the feasibility and ac-ceptability of storage augmentation in the Yakima River basin. Two types of solutions are being studied: (1) diversion of Columbia River water to the proposed Black Rock project to be used as an "exchange supply" for irrigation enti-ties in the lower Yakima Basin; and, (2) creation of additional storage within the Yakima River ba-sin. The objectives of the study are to move the Yakima River flow regime towards a normative condition for fisheries, provide a more reliable water supply for irrigators and provide additional water supply for future municipal demands.

Mr. McCartney also discussed feasibility criteria, which are technical viability, economic impacts, social and environmental acceptability, protec-tion of Indian trust assets, Endangered Species Act and environmental compliance, and financial feasibility, both for repayment of construction costs and on-going operations and maintenance costs. He described the study plan and achieve-ments to date. The feasibility study and Envi-ronmental Impact Statement are scheduled to be completed in 2008.

Four speakers, representing viewpoints on addi-tional storage in the Yakima Basin, spoke next. Gary Ballew, Deputy County Administrator for Benton County, described the importance of ag-riculture and the need for new storage. He em-phasized that conservation and other tools are important parts of the area’s strategy to manage their water resources, but that additional storage is critical. Robert Masonis, Senior Director of the NW region of American Rivers, discussed the need to determine whether water is being used efficiently and cost-effectively. Charlie de la Chappelle, the Vice Chairman of the Yakima Ba-sin Storage Alliance presented the efforts under-taken by the region in the past 60 years to prepare for drought, conserve, and develop addi-tional irrigation water supply. Ken Hammond, Professor of Geography (retired) at Central Washington University, discussed programs such as water marketing, fallowing of agricultural lands, and pressurized water delivery systems.

Following a lunch break and a question and an-swer session of the keynote speaker and panel-ists, the dialogue participants broke into groups to discuss the problems and opportunities, crite-ria for evaluation, alternatives, and the potential Black Rock Reservoir itself. Reporting out after each of the topics kept the groups on track and provided additional points of view for further dis-cussions. More information on the outcomes from this dialogue session will be posted on the AWRA-WA website.

The policy dialogues sponsored by AWRA-WA in 2005 are providing opportunities for profes-sionals from a broad spectrum of disciplines in-volved with water resources in the State of Washington to help shape our future. The first dialogue identified priority water resource policy issues to be addressed. The final dialogue will be in the form of education workshop ("Commu-nication and Dialogue among Water Profession-als, the Public and Policy Makers: Science as the Basis for Water Policy"), which will precede the AWRA National Conference on November 6, 2005 in Seattle Washington