Irrigators unveil water savings plan

COLUMBIA RIVER — A group of Columbia River irrigators have unveiled a new plan for water use efficiency and that group is asserting that water regulators should establish policies to reward water use efficiency such as theirs.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigator's Association issued their Best Management Practices for water use Wednesday and have hopes state and federal water resource managers follow their lead.

The practices came out of a discussion about the receipt of new water rights, and CSRIA board representative Darryll Olsen said they are ones the group has been talking about formally implementing for several years now.

The program focuses on use of water from pumps to the ground, and takes into account water application needs for large and small irrigators, as well as some municipal irrigation conditions for landscape and turf. The program adopts some features recommended from local conservation districts and the Washington Department of Ecology. Olsen estimates the by implementing the practices, that association will save between 150,000 and 200,000 acre feet of water per year.

"It's a complete package," Olsen said, "in terms of savings, most of our members are at that level."

Olsen said most of the CSRIA are "direct pumpers," and the practices are designed for irrigators and water right holders who are direct pumpers from mainstreams of the Snake and Columbia rivers. Participation in the program is voluntary for association members, but members are able to show their direct implementation of the practices through certification with the irrigation association .

The practices have been unveiled after the halting of the Columbia River Initiative's proposed rule making by Gov. Christine Gregoire earlier this year. The CRI was initiated as part of a plan by Gov. Gary Locke that establishes a framework for issuing new water rights from the river and works to improve flows for fish populations. Gregoire put the plan on hold in February, until the completion of the most recent legislative session.

Olsen said the association is bringing forward the practices in hope that those who are efficient with water will be awarded new water rights. Olsen envisions that any future fixes of water right issues will have to involve best management practices like the ones the CSRIA is implementing.

"Those who are efficient with water use should be awarded with new water rights," Olsen said.

The announcement by the irrigators' association came two days after Governor Gregoire met with legislators to pick up the process first started by the CRI. DOE spokesperson Joye Redfield-Wilder said the Columbia River Partnership process will begin this summer and officials will decide how to proceed toward a new rule to manage Columbia River water rights.