Water could arrive to Odessa subarea farmers in 2016

MOSES LAKE - East Columbia Basin Irrigation District officials hope to begin delivering much-needed surface water to farmers in the Odessa subarea by as early as 2016.

The district has been working on implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program, which will bring Columbia River water to about 87,000 acres of farmland, since last year.

A majority of those acres are under the Odessa Subarea Special Study - which looked at ways to remedy the groundwater decline in the Odessa aquifer. The Bureau of Reclamation released in April 2013 their preferred solution.

Surface water would reach 70,000 acres of land both north and south of Interstate 90 via the East Low Canal as part of the solution. The East District began work on widening the canal and coming up with delivery system designs last fall.

They held a meeting last week to discuss their progress with landowners.

Levi Johnson, development coordinator for the district, said construction on the first phase of widening the canal is about 96 percent done.

The first phase involves widening 13 miles of the canal. About 1 million cubic yards of earth will be excavated from that portion of the canal, dubbed Zone 1.

Zone 1 covers the Lind Coulee stretch of the canal, from the interstate to the Lind Coulee Wasteway.

The district will also make modifications to four county road bridges and install a new radial gate in this zone.

Work on Zone 2 - a 31-mile stretch - has started as well, Johnson said.

"Right now, crews are in the vicinity of Warden, and they will continue to work through winter of next year to finish that up," he said.

One million cubic yards of earth will be moved from this section of the canal as well. In addition, eight county road bridges will be modified and five additional siphon barrels and radial gates will be installed during this phase.

The district is using some of the $26 million the state Department of Ecology made available for the project to fund construction. Some of that money is also going to the cost of coming up with preliminary designs for a delivery system to get the water from the East Low Canal out to farmers.

Johnson said the district has come up with two systems, one north and one south of the interstate, that would deliver water to almost 90,000 acres.

They have also come up with two alternative systems as well, he said.

"These are not carved in stone," he said. "This is our first attempt at laying out systems, modeling them and getting initial cost estimates to establish these systems."

It would cost about $181 million to install all the pipes needed for the district's preliminary design, Johnson said. That would come out to roughly $6,200 an acre for the system.

However, those figures are only ballpark estimates, he said.

Johnson said the district needs to keep meeting with landowners so they can finalize designs for the delivery system.

"We want to get feedback from growers to know where you want the points of delivery to be on the systems," he said.

The district plans on holding system-based landowner meetings in July and August to obtain that information from landowners.

"We want to find the most acceptable option, and we define that as the option that maximizes acres served, that is an acceptable price to landowners and that can be financed," Johnson said. The district would seek a municipal bond to fund construction, but would need firm commitment from landowners prior to starting that process.

He said the district anticipates construction of a delivery system to start in 2015 and continue through 2018, with water deliveries hopefully starting in 2016.

"That's ambitious, but that's how we're going to move forward," Johnson said.