Irrigators, feds team up on water project funding

A new partnership between Yakima Basin irrigators and the U.S. Department of the Interior could help fund the water supply aspects of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan.

How to pay for the plan — estimated to cost about $4 billion for water supply, fish passage, conservation and habitat projects over the next 30 years — has been a focus of supporters since state lawmakers approved the plan and pledged to cover half the costs in 2013. Congressional legislation to approve federal support and major funding for the plan is stalled in conference negotiations as part of a larger energy bill.

Meanwhile, irrigation districts with junior water rights that have the most to gain from new water supplies have offered to pay for projects benefiting their farmers, including a pumping plant that would draw additional water from the Kachess Reservoir during drought years. But the old financing method that built the districts — decades-long, low-interest government loans — is unlikely in today’s political climate.

So the Roza Irrigation District and the Kittitas Reclamation District want to pursue private financing for the pumping plant. And a new partnership signed this week with DOI’s new Natural Resource Investment Center could help them do that, according to a DOI news release.

The agency announced it after Deputy Secretary of the Interior Michael L. Connor and Deputy Under Secretary for U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources and Environment Ann Mills spent several days touring integrated plan projects in the Yakima Basin, including the first-of-its-kind fish passage under construction at the Cle Elum Dam.

Interior’s Natural Resource Investment Center was founded late last year to “develop creative financing opportunities” with private investors for projects that have broad water supply and conservation benefits, according to the department’s website.

“They have a specific expertise in financing these sorts of projects,” said Roza District manager Scott Revell. “There are a surprisingly large number of private (investors) who want to make investment in infrastructure projects that have ecosystem benefits.”

Working with the investment center would help the local irrigation districts connect with those investors, who would loan money to the pumping plant project for both a return on investment and the opportunity to demonstrate their support for water-smart projects, Revell said.

But actually securing that financing is a long way off, Revell said.

The Bureau of Reclamation is working on its environmental review of the project options, including the original permanent pumping plant and the floating alternative initially developed by the Roza Irrigation District. The results aren’t expected until the end of the year.

“We need to have the cost nailed down and we still need to have detailed conversations with our water users about those costs” before seeking financing, Revell said, adding that not all the district’s landowners want to invest in the project.