Bureau releases Potholes water feed assessment
Comments due May 27
EPHRATA — Basin residents get their first look at a draft document regarding an area supplemental water feed route for the Potholes Reservoir this week.
The Bureau of Reclamation holds a public meeting on the draft environmental assessment Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the bureau's Ephrata field office, located at 32 C St. in Ephrata.
The draft document, released April 27, describes the preferred alternative, which is to release feed water from Billy Clapp Reservoir into Brook Lake and convey it down Crab Creek to Potholes Reservoir.
The supplemental feed route study also examined using one other route, the West Canal and Frenchman Hills Wasteway to convey water to Potholes.
For years, water has been fed to Potholes Reservoir through the East Low Canal of the Columbia Basin Project, but due to operational changes over the years, it has become difficult to ensure the ability to supply the entire feed to Potholes Reservoir.
"There's a lot of public interest in the feed route study that's been going on for roughly a year now," bureau Special Projects Officer Jim Blanchard said. "So we want to give the public the opportunity to make comment on the draft environmental assessment. This is one of two methods — they're welcome to come and talk with you, or they can give us written comment."
The supplemental feed route is under the state's Columbia River partnership program, but Blanchard said it is a separate item from the offstream storage and Odessa subarea issues, which are also operating under public scrutiny.
"We're hoping to be able to answer questions if (members of the public) have any," he said. "I would suspect some of the people living along Crab Creek might have questions about the impact to their place of living or working."
The meeting facility is accessible to people with disabilities. Contact Blanchard at 509-754-0226 for sign language interpretation for the hearing impaired or other auxiliary aids.
Deadline for comments on the draft environmental assessement is May 27. Written comments can be sent to the attention of Blanchard at Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 815, Ephrata, WA 98823-0815.
For more information on the draft environmental assessment, access the bureau's Web site at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/ea/wash/potholes/index.html.