Agreement enables 2,100-2,500 acres to receive Project water

Need for H20 still outnumbers capacity in sub-area

COLUMBIA BASIN — An agreement allowing the first new water service contracts in 20 years has been labeled a good start.

Some irrigators who rely on the rapidly-declining Odessa aquifer are one step closer to receiving Columbia Basin Project water to replace their dwindling wells.

An agreement — signed Monday by the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, state Department of Ecology and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — provides the way for some irrigators to replace their groundwater supplies with surface water delivered from the Columbia Basin Project.

Under the agreement, the Columbia Basin Project will supply water conserved by lining and piping irrigation canals and laterals, and deliver it to farmers whose wells have dropped as much as 10 feet a year over the past several years.

System improvements in the district since 1993 have conserved 10,536 acre-feet per year of water. Some 6,322 acre-feet per year of that water will be used to replace water currently pumped from the Odessa aquifer to irrigate up to 2,500 acres of farmland in the Odessa Subarea. The remaining 4,214 acre-feet per year will be split between municipal and industrial uses and environmental enhancement activities within the Columbia Basin Project area.

Dick Erickson, manager of the irrigation district, explained that this will be the first time in 20 years that the district is able to issue any new water service contracts.

"It's also a good start in that, because of the legislation passed last year authorizing this, we have worked out an arrangement where we can use certain types of conserved water to replace groundwater irrigation in the sub-area," Erickson added.

Erickson explained that the reason the agreement is only a start is because it will enable the district to reach somewhere between 2,100 and 2,500 acres, but an estimated 160,000 acres draws water from wells in the east-high area.

"This is just a real drop in the bucket, but it's the first time in 20 years we've been able to do something, so it's a step," he said.

Some of the well levels have gone down over 300 feet in the last 20 years, Erickson said.

"There's more water being withdrawn from the aquifer than what's being recharged," he said. "That dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the Department of Ecology allowed the area to be overappropriated, on the assumption that the Project would be completed in about 30 years, which hasn't happened."

With the small amount of acreage receiving water, Erickson said he didn't know if it would be possible to prioritize exactly, even though some areas are in more need than others. The decision also has to do with the canal capacity, location of the land and how far it is from the canal, he said.

"The cooperative water-conservation efforts in the Columbia Basin are allowing us to help irrigators address their water-supply problems," said Ecology Director Jay Manning in a press release. "While this doesn't provide a total solution, it's a good start. We will continue to work with the irrigators to find long-term solutions for the Odessa subarea."

Odessa-area irrigators who receive water from the Project will receive a superceding groundwater permit from DOE authorizing use of the new surface water as a replacement for their groundwater source. The irrigators' state-issued groundwater rights will be protected from relinquishment, as authorized by special legislation passed in 2004, by allowing ground water to be pumped again in the future if water from the Project is interrupted.

Although the new law provides flexibility for Odessa-area irrigators, they will not be allowed to expand their irrigated acreage or use more water than currently authorized by their water rights.

In the coming months, District staff and DOE hydrogeologists will determine which parts of the Odessa aquifer are suffering the greatest rates of decline. The information will help determine where replacement water from the Columbia Basin Project will have the greatest benefit to the aquifer.

"There's definitely interest," Erickson said. "We know we have way more people wanting water than we have capacity. By getting the agreement signed, we are optimistic that we will actually be able to deliver this water in the 2006 irrigation season."

Erickson said that there's still more paperwork between the irrigation district and the Bureau of Reclamation before the agreement can be operational, but the two biggest steps have been accomplished.