Teamwork pushed for area water needs

Manning addresses conference

MOSES LAKE - Before a group of about 100 people, state Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning called for teamwork in developing new water supplies during the Columbia Basin Development League's annual conference.

Manning, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's, said the governor will continue with water policies that have worked well over the past four years.

Gregoire was re-elected to her second term in office after defeating Republican challenger Dino Rossi, who received 68 percent of Grant County's votes.

"She will reach across the aisle," Manning said. "She will work to make it one Washington."

The Columbia Basin Development League, the nonprofit group holding the event on Thursday, formed 44 years ago to "provide support for the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project and its future development," the league's Web site states in part.

Manning said he is glad the election is over because a level of political scrutiny loomed, which made his job that much harder.

He also talked about how water issues in Washington State were dominated by litigation and disagreement from the 1970s to the 1990s.

No one was winning and in the end, there was almost no progress, Manning noted.

After Gregoire was elected in 2004, Ecology met with the tribes, farmers and other stakeholders to reach a compromise about the Columbia River, he said.

It was decided the river's flow would not be reduced in July and August, water supplies would be aggressively pursued and $2 million would be placed into an account for that purpose, he said in part.

State Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, was part of those discussions and could likely say the process was touch and go, Manning said.

And several people listening to Manning's speech in Moses Lake were critical of the agreement, Manning recollected.

Another issue, the drawdown of Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam, will provide 30,000 acre-feet of water to the Odessa subarea in parts of the Columbia Basin. An underground water source, the Odessa subarea aquifer volume is declining, and farmers are worried about irrigating their crops.

He said the new water isn't enough, but "it's more than anyone's accomplished in a long time.

"There's a bunch more that's possible with the spirit of compromise," Manning said.

The drawdown was appealed by the Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Columbia River Keepers, but Manning said he's absolutely confident ecology can win the appeal.

The appeal is being handled by the three-member bipartisan state Pollutions Control Hearing Board.

Manning also talked about other state water projects and why he believes they would work well.

But about 98 percent of government appropriations money is already spent in other areas, he explained.

So only a few projects will be funded. Hearing negative talk about a group's project will move it down the list as cooperation is needed from all groups, he said.

Manning told the audience to continue working together, ignore historic distrust and try to put themselves into another person's shoes.