Canal access to expand

OTHELLO — The Washington State Legislature’s recently passed $8.98 billion capital budget for 2023-25 includes $32.8 million in funding to help extend the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program, according to a press release from the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District.

"The funding for the Odessa (Groundwater Replacement Program) is huge," said Washington State Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake.

The funding will be used to help design and construct up to five eligible water delivery systems that will connect farmers who are not currently receiving Columbia Basin Project water to the East Low Canal.

The goal of the project is to provide Columbia River water to acres included in the Columbia Basin Project but never provided for once funding for the construction of the East High Canal, which would have provided water to farmers in the eastern reaches of the project, was withdrawn in the early 1970s. Many of the farmers in the eastern portion of the project were given temporary authorization beginning in the late 1960s to irrigate from deep wells, which has led to increasingly low water levels in the Odessa Aquifer.

“This is a significant step forward in building out the critical OGWRP, which has been decades in the making, and is the result of strong collaboration and continuing support from a number of partners, landowners and elected officials,” said Craig Simpson, ECBID secretary-manager. “We’re thrilled to see this project progress.”

“It's very critical that we get some more of these projects put together, just absolutely critical for this area right now,” said Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake.

A total of nine lateral pipelines are proposed to connect 87,000 acres to the Columbia Basin Project, according to data available on the Odessa Watershed Program’s website, with the first of those systems — the EL 47.5 — completed in 2021. When Congress created the Columbia Basin Project in 1935, it authorized the project to provide irrigation water to over 1 million acres. However, the project only provides water to 694,000 acres through three irrigation districts.

The press release noted the ECBID is authorized to irrigate around 472,000 acres but currently only provides water to around 169,000 acres in Grant, Lincoln, Adams and Franklin counties.

Since 2004, the state of Washington has provided around $126 million to fund development and construction for the OGWRP, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — which operates the Columbia Basin Project — contributed an additional $45 million and the ECBID $16.8 million in the form of landowner-funded municipal bonds, the press release noted.

In the past, however, Simpson has referred to the OGWRP as a temporary solution, and that the only long-term solution is completing construction of some version of the East High Canal and completion of the Columbia Basin Project.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com. Additional reporting for this story by Rebecca Pettingill.