Group opposes irrigation expansion

Seeking public comment by Saturday

COLUMBIA BASIN - An environmental law and policy center based in Spokane is hoping to garner public comment against the expansion of the Columbia Basin Project.

The project utilizes water from the Columbia River, Grand Coulee Dam, Potholes Reservoir, Banks Lake and more sources to provide irrigation for agriculture in Central Washington, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Spokane physician John Osborn, a board member of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, said the center is trying to raise several points in its alert to the public.

"What the state and federal agencies are doing is presenting these various projects in piecemeal form, so the public never really sees the big picture," Osborn said. "The big picture is expanding the Columbia Basin Project. I think the agencies at least ought to be honest with the public about what they're doing."

Osborn also pointed to a recommendation made by the National Academies of Sciences in March 2004 at the request of the state's Department of Ecology. Amongst the recommendations made by the scientific panel were maintaining flows and water quality in the Columbia River.

"The state continues to pursue a course diametrically opposed to the recommendations of the scientific panel," Osborn said.

The center also cited concerns about the toxic contamination of Lake Roosevelt and issues of water quantity.

"I think there is a bigger picture as we look at how we care for the Columbia River," Osborn said. "Part of the decisions we must make about the future of the river are necessarily decisions that need to be grounded in ethics. I think this is underscored by the Catholic bishops' pastoral letter on caring for the Columbia River. The decisions we make have to be seen through not just a scientific lens, but also a moral lens."

Because of the dramatic decline in the Odessa Subarea "because of over-pumping," Osborn said, it's the end of the water frontier.

"We're seeing a dramatic decline in the basalt aquifers, not just in the Odessa Subarea, but elsewhere as well," he said. "We really are looking at having to make a significant transition, and I think we should deal with that decision head-on and look fully at the economic costs and available options."

The center has been following the issues closely, Osborn said.

"We have a water problem in Central and Eastern Washington," he said. "The state and the federal government are taking us in entirely the wrong direction. Our water future lies elsewhere, and our water future is of water conservation, efficiency standards, water transfers and other remedies. The remedies being proposed by the state and federal governments would really harm, in the parlance of what I do in caring for patients, would really harm the patient."

Alice Parker is executive secretary of the Columbia Basin Development League, which has been working for years to see increased water into the Odessa Subarea and work toward completion of the Columbia Basin Project.

"We have an environmental crisis out there and we have to do something to solve that problem," Parker said. "I don't think (the center is) looking at the broad perspective and I don't think they've looked at what the benefit has been from the existing project, and what it's done for people. As our population grows, we've got to feed these people some way or another, and how can we better do it than right here in the Columbia Basin area?"

Parker says water is not being wasted.

"We may be diverting it in some ways and put it someplace else, but when we use a little dab of water to grow food for people, we're not wasting it," she said. "And it's going back into the system some place or another, whether it percolates down into the aquifer, whether it runs back into the river or where it does, we're not wasting that water."

The center is directing the public to make comments by Saturday to Department of Ecology Central Regional Director Derek Sandison or via e-mail to Lakeroosevelt@ecy.wa.gov.

For more on the center, access the Web at www.celp.org.

For more on the league, access the Web at www.cbdleague.com.