'There's a lot of hope out there'

Aquifer supporters react to legislative session

COLUMBIA BASIN — Kevin Lyle pulls out several old newspaper clippings about the Columbia Basin Project.

In one from April 21, 1922, General George W. Goethals, builder of the Panama Canal, voices his opinion about the forward motion the project will provide the United States, saying it will add "much more to the national wealth than either the Panama Canal or the Alaska Railway."

In another clipping, an article about the project appears on the same page as a notice offering a monetary award for someone who discovers a cure for cancer.

"We're still trying to fight cancer, and we're still trying to get water," says Lyle, a Connell area farmer who, with his father and his brother, draws water from the Odessa Sub-Area Aquifer for operations in Ritzville and the Othello-Connell area.

The state allowed farmers in the Odessa Sub-Area Aquifer region to begin drawing water from the aquifer in the 1970s, believing they would ultimately get water from the planned expansion of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project. Concerns about cost and about restoring declining salmon runs helped to derail the expansion plans, leaving only the aquifer to supply the farms.

Efforts to complete the project have renewed in the last several years, most recently with the bureau conducting a study to investigate the possibility of continuing development of the Columbia Basin Project, to deliver project water to lands currently using groundwater in the Odessa Sub-Area. The aquifer is declining to the extent that farmers' ability to irrigate their crops is at risk. Domestic, commercial, municipal and industrial uses are also affected.

In a Washington state legislative session which concluded Wednesday night, a 10-year, $200 million bond package that would increase water storage in the Columbia River Basin was approved. Senate Bill 6151, sponsored by Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, which eases water relinquishment rules for the Odessa aquifer region, was also approved during the session.

'They've been pumping a little less and less here every year'

The Lyles farm Kentucky bluegrass, peas and wheat, as well as canola, mustard and beans in the past. They have 4,000 acres of farmland, about half of which draws water from irrigation, Kevin Lyle said.

His parents arrived in the area in 1901, and qualified for a homestead deed in 1907.

Lyle himself was born on the family farm in Ritzville, where he graduated from high school and went on to attend Washington State University. Upon graduating, he returned and combined operations with his father and brother in 1981.

"We used to lease ground out to potatoes and we haven't leased ground out in the last several years," Lyle said of how depletion of the Odessa Aquifer has impacted his family's operation. "The potatoes took so much water that we weren't getting enough water for the bluegrass and the wheat. Normally, potato rent's pretty good rent, so sometimes that's kind of a hard decision."

The Lyles are trying to grow more of the bluegrass and wheat, but that's been tough in the last few years with the price of wheat, he said.

At Kevin Lyle's home, there are two wells and 10 circles in which to grow agricultural products, but not enough water to grow high-value crops like potatoes.

The wells were drilled in the early 1970s, and deepened from 800 feet to about 1,200 feet in the mid-1990s. Lyle said there hasn't been any work done on them since then.

"But they've been pumping a little less and less here every year," he said. "We used to be able to run three circles constant; now we're basically two circles."

Lyle and his brother figure the water level has been dropping about five feet a year for the last 10 years.

"You're watching the water table there and the air line, and you can see in the middle of the summer when your crops need the water and the water table's only 20 feet above the bowls, and you're going, 'I hope it doesn't get much lower,'" Lyle said, noting several of a neighbor's wells were shut down last year.

He feels fortunate he didn't have to shut his own operation down. Sometimes, it's possible to lower bowls down back into the water level, but that requires hiring a person to come out and add more piping, he said.

'Progress has been made'

Several supporters of the efforts to assist those using the Odessa Aquifer rang in with optimistic feelings about the concluded legislative session, but also cautioned that there's still a long way to go.

Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Moses Lake, said added capacity and storage are key to Columbia Basin water users. Mulliken said Potholes Reservoir is one of the first places for storage, which will make a big difference for residents of Adams, Grant and Lincoln counties.

It was "probably the most positive of this entire shortened session," Mulliken said, adding that when she spoke to Gov. Chris Gregoire, the governor was still surprised everything was able to come together. "After her years at the Department of Ecology, even she knows the contentiousness of water discussions. To actually come away with money and two plans, I think was monumental."

Pat Boss, principal consultant for the Odessa Aquifer Replenishment Coalition, said Schoesler's bill is a little fix that was necessary before the bigger fixes.

"Now with the Schoesler bill passing and the Columbia River bill passing, we've got a couple of tools now that we can use to start helping Odessa irrigators," Boss said. "They're still only small pieces, though, in what needs to be done."

With the Columbia River bill, Boss said, some resources will be available to begin looking at storage operations, as well as some funding for conservation activities. The $130 million for storage is more for study options than building anything, he said, noting that Odessa is not the only area looking for water storage, and the money could be spread out.

But $57 million for conservation activities might be of some use right away, Boss added, in looking at how to help Odessa irrigators to save more water.

"We're going to need to continue to take pressure off that aquifer in the interim while we're trying to find a permanent solution," he said. "Because we can't keep pumping at the rate we've been pumping, we're going to have to figure out a way to slow that down a little bit but also not hurt the economy, and also not stop on trying to find a permanent solution."

Most storage options for the Odessa aquifer include water storage plans costing at least $1 billion, Boss said, which is the Bureau of Reclamation's entire annual budget. The big challenge will be finding the appropriate storage site to help Odessa aquifers and coming up with that kind of money on a state and federal level, he said.

Columbia Basin Development League executive secretary Alice Parker said Schoesler's bill will give aquifer users more flexibility and the Columbia River bill will help move through the consultation process, she added, while a bonding bill makes the money available.

"I'm elated, because the vote was what was really great, I thought," Parker said of the legislative session results. "It shows a really nonpartisan decision to help something in the state that's going to be really productive and progressive."

The league is now looking at what to do to begin the next phase of completion of the Columbia Basin Project, and take the pressure off the Odessa Aquifer, Parker said.

"Progress has been made on the state level, now we're going to have to really concentrate on the federal level," she said. "The state has committed itself, now we've got to get the federal government to commit themselves."

'It's been taking 20 years to educate people on the problem'

With the passing of the Columbia River bill, Lyle said, it looks like the Columbia Basin Project will get some more water.

"I'd like to see the project finished," he said, adding he's not sure if that's feasible economically. Water from the project would probably be of a higher volume and better quality, as opposed to water from other projects elsewhere in the country, which eventually turn the ground salty or bad. "We're having that problem with our wells. Our wells are high in sodium and kind of starting sealing off the ground, making it hard to get water in and raising the pH."

Had the Legislature not approved the bills, Lyle said the operation would probably be able to keep pumping water for several more years, until the water table eventually declined to the point where it isn't economical to run the pumps. At that point, he would probably revert back to dryland farming, he said.

Schoesler's bill will help farmers not lose their water rights.

"That would be good, but if there's no hope of ever getting project water, then that's not a solution," Lyle said.

He believes the amount of knowledge from the public about the situation Odessa farmers face is getting better. Some people still don't realize the project is unfinished, he said, but thanks to organizations like the league, they understand there's more acres of land with the potential to be developed.

"We've been talking to lots of politicians over the years, and it's been taking 20 years to educate people on the problem, it seems like," he said. "I think a lot of people are realizing that there is a problem and potential loss of a lot of irrigated farm ground." That would impact the state itself if lost, he noted, and be of benefit if more can be developed.

'This is the most optimistic I've been'

Lyle admits with a chuckle there were many times he thought about quitting farming.

"When the price of wheat's low and you don't have enough water to irrigate the crops out here, and you have got to decide whether you want to put the water on one field and let a couple other fields dry up on you …" he said, noting many farmers have changed their occupation in the last two years. "It's not hard to think about giving it up."

While Lyle has a degree in agriculture economics, he said he has always liked the way of farm life.

"Being my own boss and working on the farm has been always more appealing than working for someone else," he said.

With the passage of the bills from the state and support from the governor and the state's Department of Ecology, Lyle feels the future has a bright outlook. The first major step was lifting of the moratorium on Columbia River withdrawals in November 2003.

"We were able to get the moratorium things and we were able to get things going to where we could have something to work with," he said.

That includes money dedicated last fall by the state for study of the project's continuation, and support from federal legislators, Lyle added.

"This is the most optimistic I've been about helping to solve our problem," he said, noting his father has long been working to get water and was a director on the East Columbia Irrigation District. "He said, 'When people in the past have talked about getting the project going, it's always been pretty negative and not much hope.' But there's been a lot of hope out there, especially at the start of the year with the passage of the water bills."