Irrigation district receives survey results

Responses range from 'ASAP' to 'Not interested'

OTHELLO— The results are in, and answers may vary.

In January, the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District undertook an interest and opinion survey of landowners within the area of the district authorized as a future development area of the Columbia Basin Federal Reclamation Project.

When it comes to the prospect of receiving CBP water in areas impacted by declining water levels in the Odessa Sub-Area Aquifer, responses were mixed.

"In view of the world agro-political status this is not feasible," commented one respondent.

"The sooner the better!" exclaimed another.

Other responses included:

"I feel no obligation to bail out the deep-well farmers. I feel money is wasted, even for the studies."

"Odessa sub doesn't have 10 years left. Economy declining, only CBP development will stop this."

"Stay out! Leave the river water alone! Get me off your mailing list."

"Let's Get 'er Done!"

Irrigation district manager Dick Erickson said the idea for the survey originated with the district's board of directors at about the same time that the Bureau of Reclamation decided to determine ways to use the CBP system to get water to alleviate the declining water tables in the Odessa Sub-Area, which he said is essentially the same land area as the second, unfinished half of the project.

"Our board felt that one of the things the Bureau was going to need to know was basically some idea of how many people wanted water, how many acres was involved and where they were located," Erickson said.

The district asked a number of questions to get an idea of the respondents' feelings of urgency, and also asked the present designation of the land asking for CBP water — under deep-well irrigation, dryland agriculture or in the conservation preserve program.

The survey was sent out in early February. When directors looked at the preliminary results in May, they felt that they had not received a very widespread response, Erickson said. The irrigation district asked the Columbia Basin Development League, which had volunteered, to do a follow-up, so in June the CBDL sent a letter to everyone who had not responded, explaining the survey's importance and purpose.

"We had quite a few contacts that time," Erickson said. But in August, the directors could still see landowners had not responded, so a third and final mailing went out, with 24 of 800 people responding, concluding the survey in September.

Of the people that responded, 80 percent wanted water, Erickson said.

"Of the 20 percent that said they didn't want water, some were very vocal about that also, but obviously the majority of the respondents wanted the water and (in) some of the comments, they were quite vocal about the urgency," he said.

Landowners representing a total of 259,930 acres reported a desire for CBP irrigation water, while owners of 15,255 did not desire irrigation water. Respondents representing 275,185 returned surveys.

Erickson said that some of the people who were most vocal about wanting water were deep-well irrigators watching their well levels decline and uncertain about their ability to stay in irrigated production.

Those who didn't included comments that they didn't see the need for a public bail-out of individuals that made the investments in wells, and some were not interested in becoming irrigated farmers, choosing to remain in dryland operations, he said.

"Based on the people that are active in the CBDL, the geographic distribution pretty much followed where you see the active participation," Erickson said. "There's a lot of interest in southwest Lincoln County and where it borders Adams-Grant County, and strong interest east of Othello, north of Connell."

The irrigation district has provided the results to the CBDL and Bureau of Reclamation, which will have to come up with development alternatives. Erickson thinks the information from the study will help.

"It's fairly logical they want to develop in areas where they're wanted," he said, adding that things like the cost of infrastructure will have to be factored in.

Survey results will be posted, and Erickson will give a presentation on them, at the CBDL conference at Big Bend Community College's Advanced Technologies and Education Center Wednesday afternoon. The conference begins at 1 p.m.