Sunnyside senator introduces bill in state legislature to fund water projects

OLYMPIA — A Yakima Valley state senator has introduced legislation to create a $5 billion program to fund water projects across the state.

Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, introduced Senate Bill 5632 on Jan. 10, which was meant to create the Washington Water Infrastructure Program, which would use a combination of federal funds and proceeds from state bond sales to pay for projects that would improve water supply, help deal with stormwater runoff, alleviate flooding and make it easier for fish to move up and down river.

The measure would channel the proposed new funding through existing agencies, like the Department of Ecology, the Fish Barrier Removal Board, the Office of the Chelan Basin and the Office of the Columbia River.

“My goal in this bill is not to establish any agencies,” Honeyford said. “The funding could be used to handle water supply like irrigation, municipal water, anything to do with water storage, use or efficiencies.”

According to Sara Higgins, the assistant director of the Columbia Basin Development League, those projects could include the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program, an effort to expand the eastern reaches of the Columbia Basin Project to include nearly 90,000 acres of farmland currently within the project, which does not have access to irrigation water.

That last, east of the East Low Canal, was to be fed from the proposed East High Canal. However, Congress defunded the East High Canal in the early 1970s as a cost-saving measure.

“The Columbia Basin Project provides a lot of value for the state,” Higgins said. “We see the opportunities there, and we are supportive of funding opportunities.”

Honeyford said he was initially confident the measure would find broad support, but after a contentious hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee on Jan. 18, he said he has his doubts about passage during this year’s 60-day legislative session given a lack of support from the state Department of Ecology.

“I’m not so sure of passage,” he said. “They were not for or against.”

Higgins said, however, Honeyford’s legislation is not the first attempt to create a water project fund in Washington, and she expects a “determined and persistent” struggle to get this passed.

“This is a long-term effort,” she said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.