Public voices concerns about water route

EPHRATA — A number of Columbia Basin residents aired their concerns about the possible impact a new water route to Potholes Reservoir could have on their property.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation held a meeting at its office in Ephrata Wednesday evening. Roughly 50 people were in attendance for the meeting, which was intended to garner comments and feedback about the bureau's preferred alternative for a supplemental water route into the reservoir.

The bureau's selected alternative route would release water from Billy Clapp Reservoir into Brook Lake and convey it down Crab Creek to Potholes Reservoir.

The new supplemental route would take about 25 percent to the reservoir from the existing route.

"The routes we're using now are pretty much at their maximum and the ability to move water through those is getting smaller all the time, facilities are getting older all the time, there's a whole combination of things there," Bureau Special Projects Manager Jim Blanchard said.

Issues mentioned at the meeting included:

? Mitigation to any property owners impacted if the route is selected

? Property owners impacted by tests already conducted by the bureau

? The amount of sedimentation which would enter into Moses Lake

? The resulting increase in mosquitoes as a result of testing or increased water levels

? Stabilization of Crab Creek

Blanchard conducted the meeting and fielded the majority of questions. There were more landowners in attendance than he expected, but the bureau already heard most of the comments. Bureau representatives had already spoke to many people in attendance in conversations one-on-one, he said.

"Big surprises, I don't think we had one," he said. "Actually, the level of concern didn't surprise me. I'm not at all surprised, with the number of landowners and the impact it will have on some people's property, we had people who were definitely concerned about what's happening with their place. Those things, we have to talk to those people. And we will."

The final deadline for public comment is May 27. At that point, Blanchard said, the bureau examines the comments and crafts answers to them, "massaging" previously unheard concerns into its draft environmental assessment.

Any budget requests made by the bureau would go through President George W. Bush and have to be approved by Congress.

A final assessment would be released in mid-July with a decision document addressing the bureau's attempts to take care of the problems.

"We listen to all comments, we attempt to accommodate them," Blanchard said. "Sometimes we get comments which are diametrically opposed or don't allow us to meet the need we have. We may not meet anything everybody wants. It's not possible, oftentimes, to do everything."

Ephrata resident Cheryl Lester has property on both Crab Creek and Rocky Ford Creek, and said she and other residents with Rocky Ford Creek property have already been impacted by the bureau's testing. If the route continues, Lester said, her land would be under water, including her home.

"I don't think there's enough information; I think people are being left out," Lester said. "I don't think it makes us feel comforted … I don't trust the bureau to actually protect our rights or our property rights."

Moses Lake resident Dan Bator was in attendance with parents Ed and Helen Bator, whose property would be cut off by the route, and was one of the more vocal voices during the meeting.

The land is almost to the point where it's not farmable, Dan Bator said, giving the Bators the choice of relinquishing water rights in order to cease paying to the irrigation district or splitting the property up. The route would further lower the property value, he said.

"It's a big, scary thing for all of us," Dan Bator said after the meeting. "We want it left the same. We want it the way it is — a beautiful, natural creek. Our place is developed, we've always maintained it for wildlife and we don't want to make a development out of it."