Don't ignore DOE's water workshops

by The Royal Register Editor & Ted Escobar
| September 2, 2011 6:00 AM

There is a notice in this week's paper about workshops the Department of Ecology is planning on Sept. 7, 8 and 9 in Richland, Wenatchee and Spokane regarding the water supply in the Columbia River.

If you are a serious water user (farmer, municipality), you should give serious thought to attending at least one. You need to find out now what the DOE has up its sleeve before new laws affecting your supply are enacted by the legislature.

I am of the Ronald Reagan thinking in regards to governmental agencies that say they are here to help. They usually are not, unless it's to help themselves. I have little trust for bureaucracy.

The DOE is going to discuss its nearly complete "Columbia River Basin Long-Term Water Supply and Demand Forecast." It wants feedback on its preliminary findings. It may not, really, but go give it anyway.

According to Derek Sandison, of the DOE's Office of the Columbia River, the report "provides a blueprint for how we invest in water supply projects."

It is the public's job to keep Sandison and the DOE honest. "How we invest in water supply projects" can easily be changed to "How we do not invest in water supply projects."

Those of you who have attempted to improve your own water supply in the last 30 years know how tough the DOE has made that process. Yakima Valley irrigators started dreaming of a solution to their needs 30-40 years ago. They're still dreaming.

The DOE could indeed be trying to help, but you should not allow them to operate in a vacuum. It's when you seem not to care that some government agency sticks it to you.

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Congratulations are in order for all of the people involved in putting on Mattawa Communities Day last Saturday. I enjoyed it just as much as Summerfest at Royal City and Hot Desert Nights in Desert Aire.

If someone would have asked for a prediction on attendance beforehand, I would have said 300-500 in the park and a little more at the parade.

I am not an official counter, but I estimate there were upwards of 1,000 at both events. That's a better than good start for a festival that went on vacation for five years.

The future looks bright and, on Saturday, chief organizer Maggie Celaya said: "We'll have more time to organize the next one."

I'll be looking forward to it. Every town should have a day when work is abandoned and focus is given to being a community.