Long road ahead for CBDL fight against depleting water levels

League introduces project administrator, new Web site

COLUMBIA BASIN — Even though efforts to combat depleting levels of the Odessa Sub-area aquifer have begun, there's still a long journey ahead.

That was the recurrent theme for the evening, as about 25 people gathered at Moses Lake Fire Station No. 1 Thursday evening for the Columbia Basin Development League trustee/membership meeting.

Those in attendance received reports on the state of the league's governmental affairs from lobbyist Mike Schwisow, including plans to meet with legislators on the newly formed Columbia River Task Force and educate them about the impact that the declining water table is having on the area's farmers, who draw their resources from deep wells in the second, non-irrigated half of the Columbia Basin Project.

At a CBDL meeting in September 2004, Roger Bailie, chair of CBDL's steering advisory subcommittee (SAC), explained that the depletion of the Odessa aquifer would have both an environmental impact, with the potential loss of over 200,000 acres of irrigated agriculture and a negative economic impact.

"We have an environmental crisis out there — that Odessa area aquifer is just being depleted, and we've got to solve it," CBDL executive secretary Alice Parker said at Thursday's meeting. "The project was authorized back in the 1930s. Those people out there were promised water, and they still haven't received the water, so it's time to begin to help them out."

Congress originally authorized the Columbia Basin irrigation project to cover 1,095,000 acres, but to date, only about 600,000 acres have been developed.

The Washington State Department of Ecology granted farmers permits to drill wells from the aquifer out in the unfinished area, with the thinking that surface water from Grand Coulee would be coming very soon, Parker said.

But irrigation in the unfinished areas — including portions of Grant, Adams, Franklin and Lincoln counties — was put on hold until only the past few years, for reasons including a moratorium on Columbia River water withdrawals and the Endangered Species Act.

Today, CBDL's efforts have been narrowed from bringing irrigation to the second half of the project to focus upon the Odessa Sub-area, because that is where the need is greatest, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation planning programs manager Norbert S. Ries said.

Bureau activity manager Ellen Berggren delivered a presentation on the many steps in the process for a Bureau of Reclamation study of the project. Those steps include the organization and development of information, the formulation of a plan, detailing alternatives that come out of plan formulation and evaluations for the feasibility and environmental compliance of the plan. The Bureau of Reclamation study is in the process of gathering information on the project.

"(The outlook for) doing the study and getting the funds for that is real positive," Ries said. He added that getting the funds for construction on the project will depend on the administration at the time that appropriations are needed, assuming an alternative is found. "Today's environment, with the war, discretionary funding is really, really tight. When they need funds for this — our destination is 2010, 2013 — who knows what's going to happen? It's beyond our guess what is (going to be) that administration's thought about domestic spending in the ag arena."

Ries said the "long haul" aspect of the project is related to issues including the current budget, Columbia River environmental and water right issues and demands, and an increased diversity of public interests.

"The development is going to continue to be incremental, just like the first half was," he said, noting that the first half of the Columbia Basin Project took 40 years to be irrigated. "The second half is not going to come any faster. Just be patient and persistent. It's not going to happen overnight."

The CBDL members approved Bailie's request for $5,000 for the SAC to begin to formulate information and draft a concept presentation for review in mid-August.

Also at the meeting, CBDL chairman Roger Thieme introduced Trudy Doolittle, who began work June 1 as the League's project administrator. Doolittle said her duties include working on the new Web site — not yet up and running — at www.cbdl.org, building a contact database and acting as the primary contact on CBDL fund-raising efforts.

"I think it's a great outlook," Doolittle said of the project. "I think there's a lot of great possibilities, and I think if we use this knowledge base, etc., we will be able to get the communication out and available to everyone."

"It's just going to take time," Parker said. "I have every confidence that it will go, it's just how long it's going to take to get the job done."

"We are just starting on a long trip," Thieme said, adding that the League won't really know if it will be successful for a minimum of five years. He pointed at the willingness of the Bureau of Reclamation to look at the issue and the willingness of the state to re-examine water issues and the development of the Columbia River with some off-channel storage to make it easier to withdraw water as positive signs.

"There's a certain amount of things that are kind of lining up that indicate that now's the time to put some horsepower behind it," he continued. "Let's take this five-to-seven-year run at it, and if there's a window opens up, we want to be ready to take advantage of it."

The next CBDL meeting was scheduled for July 13.