Irrigation Leader September 2015

Volume 6 Issue 8

September 2015

Building Flexibility Into Water Delivery Systems: A Conversation With Kennewick Irrigation District’s Chuck Freeman

An Irrigation District Survey

By Kris Polly

Since our debut issue of Irrigation Leader magazine in October 2010, we have benefited from the good ideas and suggestions of our readers. Mr. Alan Hansten, manager of the North Side Canal Company in Jerome, Idaho, has suggested that Irrigation Leader conduct a West-wide survey of irrigation district general managers that would allow managers to share information and be aware of how their districts compare with their peers’.

During the Irrigation Caucus meeting at the National Water Resources Association’s Western Water Seminar in Monterey, California, Norm Semanko of the Idaho Water Users Association mentioned a survey his association conducts every two years of its members. Norm generously offered that survey as a starting point for an Irrigation Leader magazine West-wide effort. In recent weeks, the Idaho survey was circulated among a number of irrigation district managers for their review and suggested additional questions. The resulting new survey has been posted online and may be accessed on our website at www.WaterAndPowerReport.com. Irrigation district

general managers are encouraged to complete the survey. The survey link will be active for several weeks to allow for maximum participation. Information about individuals will be kept confidential. The complete survey results will be shared with all the managers who participate, and aggregate information will be reported on in future issues of Irrigation Leader magazine.

Special thanks are due to Alan for the idea and to Norm for the Idaho survey. Thank you to all the managers who offered suggested additional questions.

Your assistance and guidance is greatly appreciated. We hope all irrigation district managers will participate in the survey, and we thank you for your time.

Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.

The Water and Power Report www.WaterAndPowerReport.com The Water and Power Report is the one-stop aggregate news site for water and power issues in the 17 western states. Sign up for the free “Daily” service to receive e-mail notice of the top headlines and press releases each business day.

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Irrigation Leader

C O N T E N T S

SEPTEMBER 2015

2 An Irrigation District Survey

Volume 6

Issue 8

Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by Water Strategies LLC 4 E Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 Staff: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief John Crotty, Senior Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Irrigation Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request.

ADVERTISING: Irrigation Leader accepts one-quarter, half-page, and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION: Irrigation Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors. For address corrections or additions, please contact our office at Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright Š 2015 Water Strategies LLC. Irrigation Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Irrigation Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Irrigation Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Irrigation Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

COVER PHOTO: Chuck Freeman, General Manager for the Kennewick Irrigation District (KID). Photo by KID staff.

Irrigation Leader

By Kris Polly

4 Building Flexibility Into Water Delivery Systems: A Conversation With Kennewick Irrigation District’s Chuck Freeman

10 The Value of Odessa Potatoes

By Matt Harris

12 Building Out the Columbia Basin Project, One Reach at a Time

By Levi Johnson

16 Columbia Basin Hydropower

By Tim Culbertson

18 Forecasting Water Supply and Demand for

the Columbia River Basin

By Chad Kruger, Jennifer Adam, Georgine Yorgey

20 Collaborative Water Management:

The Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan

By G. Thomas Tebb

24 The Impact of the Chelan Fire on the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District

By Mike Miller

28 Rising to the Challenge at Reclamation's Columbia-Cascades Area Office

By Dave Walsh

District Focus 30 Wenatchee Reclamation District

By Rick Smith

Board Member Profile 34 Bryan Alford, South Columbia Basin Irrigation District

Water Law 36 Irrigation on the Mid-Columbia

By Bob Siderius

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Building Flexibility Into Water Delivery Systems:

K

A Conversation With Kennewick Irrigation District’s Chuck Freeman

ennewick Irrigation District (KID) was initially built to serve the agricultural community in the TriCities area of Washington State, near the confluence of the Yakima and Columbia Rivers. The modern KID started in 1917, although its roots go back to the late 1800s. The Bureau of Reclamation took over the project in the 1950s and built the Chandler Pumping Plant, a diversion canal, and KID’s main canal works.

KID diverts water from the Yakima River at Prosser Dam, which travels 11 miles down a diversion canal to a set of hydraulic pumps at the Chandler Pumping Plant—sending water under the river up to the head of the main canal. KID serves 20,201 irrigable acres, including 9,000 acres of orchards, vineyards, and alfalfa. It manages 23,249 accounts—458 of which are agricultural.

KID has implemented a comprehensive program of system planning, flexibility, and conservation to protect its water resources and ensure deliveries to both its urban and agricultural customers. The man moving that program forward is Chuck Freeman, KID’s general manager. Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with Mr. Freeman about the current drought, the importance of public outreach, and the need to build management flexibility into a water infrastructure system.

Kris Polly: When did KID start moving from agricultural deliveries to urban deliveries?

Chuck Freeman: Our urban service has always been growing—we have served urban customers since KID became a Reclamation project—but has really taken off in the last 20 years. During my tenure, we have been growing at a pace of 300 new accounts a year.

Kris Polly: How does KID address this growing urban customer base?

Chuck Freeman: Primarily with education. It has become the bulk of the work we do. We present our message to the city councils and service clubs. We actively update our website and Facebook account, and in 2014, I hired a public relations coordinator to help deliver our message consistently across social media, print, radio, and television. My board created the position about a year and a half ago with the goal of enhancing and developing new ways to communicate with our rate base.

With our new public relations coordinator in the lead, we started doing local media buys on two television stations and five radio stations as soon as we received the Chuck Freeman in front of the 10-acre-foot Cherry Creek Reservoir.

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Irrigation Leader

official word from Reclamation that this was going to be a drought year.

KID receives its water supply right off the Yakima River and doesn’t have the ability in our contract with Reclamation to use stored water in Reclamation reservoirs. So, we can’t time releases and develop a water plan for the season. We only know 29 hours in advance how much water we will have the next day.

As current water conditions have changed, we cut new commercials with a specific message based on what we knew the next day would be. We will spend approximately $85,000 on this year’s messaging.

We had a town hall meeting last Thursday, and 100 people showed up. KID senior staff and I made presentations. A professor from WSU [Washington State University] who specializes in irrigation gave a 20‑minute presentation. We got a thumbs up from the Tri-City Herald editorial board about the town hall—for taking a tough subject and having a frank conversation with our ratepayers.

The current drought has forced us to elevate our Inside the Chandler Pumping Plant. game on messaging.

Since the last drought in 2005, KID has invested Kris Polly: What is the prognosis for near-term heavily in technology upgrades, canal lining, and storage climate conditions? to prepare for future droughts. Last winter, we lined 9 miles of canal on top of 8 miles we had previously lined.

Chuck Freeman: The prognosis for next year is poor When this drought began, we had just finished installing because of the El Niño effect. KID is preparing for 11 automated Rubicon control gates on our canal system. another year of drought.

What all this means is that we can bring canal levels up We should be okay for the rest of this year. We are much higher than before we lined. We can now pool currently diverting 230 cubic feet per second (cfs) when, water to meet instantaneous demand—that is where our during a normal year, we would be at 300 cfs. This year, we challenge is. Everyone comes home from work, throws on have been as low as 130 cfs. Quite frankly, anything below their sprinklers, and drains a canal. We assign customers a 170 cfs and we fail to meet deliveries. We have had five day and a time of day to water to force those peaks down. or six instances in which we were shutting off customers It has been effective. en masse because we didn’t have any water to put to In addition, we just completed a small 10‑acre-foot beneficial use. reservoir in an urbanized area that will help meet peak demand and, in turn, downstream agricultural deliveries.

Kris Polly: How has the current drought impacted What has further complicated this year’s drought is the KID? impact of 10 years of up-basin conservation projects.

While conservation is a good thing to do—and I Chuck Freeman: This year, we had to restrict applaud those efforts—as a downstream water user watering by our urban customers to 2 days per week, dependent on return flows, our district is affected. This is up to 30 minutes per station. When the river rises, they an issue that will have to be cooperatively addressed and can use a hose off a riser in their yards to water outside managed. Fortunately, we are blessed to have good people the restricted schedule. KID has also curtailed the water to work with in the upper basin. use of larger metered areas—not just farms, but schools, We also have had to think outside the box. I have cemeteries, and the like. We created a code enforcement reached out to Reclamation’s Yakima field office manager department and brought an officer on to implement and offered to pay his staff overtime to run river that. We are pushing 800 citations to date to enforce the operations more efficiently for us. There were 14- to watering schedule.

16‑hour blocks of time when the river was up, but the Irrigation Leader

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water went on to the Columbia River instead of to the KID main canal. Reclamation was not running enough overtime for its operations employees to address changing river conditions. So we are now paying Reclamation when a slug of water comes down the river to ensure that it gets into our canal.

Kris Polly: KID is pursuing the electrification of the Chandler Pumping Plant, which would help alleviate some of the pressures of a drought. What would that project entail?

Chuck Freeman: Right now, the Chandler pumps require 1¼ gallons of Yakima River water to move a gallon into the KID main canal. By electrifying those pumps, the water can stay in the river from Prosser Dam to the Chandler reach, where the currently pumped water reenters the Yakima River. The challenge to electrification is financial. Reclamation wants KID to pay for the electrification and bill it back to Reclamation over a couple of decades.

That price tag represents a potential loss of funds for sister irrigators and the Yakima Nation, causing them concern. So, we are exploring alternatives to help alleviate this concern, but it will require a commitment to collaborate between entities to reach a solution.

Who knows what will happen with climate change. If there is no water in the river, electrification doesn’t work.

KID has been hearing a lot about the Columbia River from its ratepayers. The river flows right through the TriCities, and people have a hard time understanding why we aren’t diverting from it. There is a lot of history on this topic, and if the KID board decides to take action, it will only be successful if the tribes are in partnership with us.

We have some ideas on how to approach this sensitive issue, but it will take time to work through the issues.

The other issue is cost: The plumbing alone will cost $150 million. Then, when you consider the no net-loss rule on the river, and the required mitigation, you are looking at a $200 million project. We would need federal funding at that point.

Kris Polly: KID is also building a new storage reservoir. How big will the reservoir be, and how will it improve your operations?

Chuck Freeman: The Amon Reservoir will help us better manage our supply during those instantaneous spikes in urban demand. It is a $7.5 million, 300‑acrefoot reservoir. We are moving to 30 percent design right now as well as property acquisition. The plan is to get this thing constructed right away. At this point, we are looking at using KID dollars to pay for it.

We are going to install more automated gates this off6

Front window of KID office.

season. So the new reservoir, combined with improved in-line storage through gate automation, will help improve our system flexibility.

Kris Polly: What advice would you give to other managers who are looking to create or are implementing a comprehensive conservation and infrastructure management program?

Chuck Freeman: Make sure you have access to good information, look at all of your options, and, if necessary, don’t be afraid to challenge the established paradigm and think outside the box to solve your challenges. The best way to communicate this is with an example. Until this year, Reclamation had never comprehensively modeled the lower Yakima River basin. We pushed hard to get this done, and now Reclamation has started the modeling process.

For an irrigation district, access to information is essential, especially when considering the variables that can impact water supply, such as development and upriver conservation. So at times, we have had to be assertive advocates for the district to gain or ensure that access.

Relationships are very important, but in our particular situation, not at the expense of having the information needed to manage the district.

Kris Polly: As an irrigation district manager, what is the most important thing you have learned?

Chuck Freeman: An irrigation district manager wears many hats, but ultimately you are the one who is responsible for making sure your farmers and account holders receive their water. That is your number 1 responsibility. Understanding that is the number 1 responsibility for all irrigation district managers enables you to understand other people’s positions and ultimately work better together.

Irrigation Leader

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The Value of Odessa

By Matt Harris

I

n Washington State, low mountain snowpack has caused the governor to declare a statewide drought emergency for this summer. However, for the majority of the growers in the Odessa Subarea region that use groundwater, these conditions are nothing new. Whereas most of the potatoes in the state are irrigated with surface water from the Columbia and Snake Rivers, farmers in the Odessa Subarea face drought-like conditions every year.

The Odessa region is an outstanding region for producing potatoes, and the production in this area of Washington is an asset for the potato-processing industry.

Growers in the Odessa will harvest potatoes in late fall—those potatoes harvested in September or October are stored until they are used in June or July of the next year. The intrinsic value of the potato crop is its ability to store throughout the calendar year for processors to make french fries year round. Potatoes farmed in the Odessa serve as an anchor for the industry and ultimately generate approximately 5.4 billion potato servings annually.

Growers use temperature-controlled storage facilities to warehouse those potatoes to maintain the quality needed for the processing industry. Potatoes are living, breathing vegetables that consume oxygen but, when properly stored in a cool, dark facility, can last up to one year.

There are a variety of factors that contribute to the long storage life of Odessa potatoes. The region is farther north, so there are cooler temperatures—where it might be 90 degrees on a summer day in the south end of the Columbia basin, it could be 80 degrees on the north end.

Also, planting is a little later in the season. The need for controlled irrigation is also key. The region receives approximately 6 inches of water a year—water applications enable the precise amount to reach the root system and maximize the growth and quality of the potato crop.

Washington State produces more than 10 billion pounds of potatoes annually, with an economic

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Potatoes

contribution of more than $4.6 billion to the state. This translates to more than 23,500 jobs, many of which are tied directly to processing potatoes. Over 12 potato processing facilities in the Pacific Northwest have access to the crop grown in the Odessa Subarea. To compete globally, these facilities operate three shifts a day for the entire year, while employing thousands of people in rural communities.

Groundwater replacement to surface water is critical to the Odessa Subarea. There are roughly 87,000 acres of farmable land in this region. A public-private partnership has unfolded between those landowners, the State of Washington, irrigation districts, and the Bureau of Reclamation to make this all work. For those growers, to look at the possibility of taking and replacing their groundwater with available surface water is exciting.

The project is starting to come together, and there is great promise in what is happening. The East Columbia Basin Irrigation District is working with the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Bureau of Reclamation, and landowners to make it happen. Initial contracts are being inked between the project partners to start the delivery of surface water to the Odessa region. Interested parties are working on determining the cost of delivering water from the East Low Canal to the north end of the Odessa area, near I-90. This type of momentum is critical in helping to see a successful transition of replacement water to the Odessa Subarea region, which will benefit the entire Washington State potato industry.

Matt Harris is the director of government affairs and the assistant executive director for the Washington State Potato Commission. You can reach Matt at (509) 765‑8845 or mharris@potatoes.com.

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Building Out the Columbia Basin Project, One Reach at a Time

By Levi Johnson

T

he East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID) has started to develop the first of seven planned pressurized delivery systems to bring surface water to up to 87,000 acres of the Odessa Subarea in central Washington State. The main surface water supplies—the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Release Program, coordinated conservation, and the Odessa Subarea Special Study Area—will be made available to growers in the Odessa Subarea who are interested in and eligible to receive federal water through a water service contract with the district. Collectively, development of the three water supplies is known as the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program (OGWRP).

The first planned delivery system is the EL47.5 delivery system, which is designed to provide groundwater replacement water to roughly 10,700 irrigated acres. Participating landowners will receive surface water in lieu of exercising their state water rights and pumping from the depleted Odessa aquifer.

Lind Coulee siphon barrel coating.

Current Construction Activities

For full OGWRP implementation, ECBID is tackling two reaches of the East Low Canal (ELC)— the district’s main water delivery conduit. In the first 13‑mile reach of the ELC that requires improvements, district crews have widened the canal from the Weber Siphon Complex to the Lind Coulee Wasteway, removing roughly 800,000 cubic yards of embankment.

A new radial gate will be installed at the wasteway this winter.

ECBID is also working on a 31‑mile reach of the ELC from the Lind Coulee Wasteway to the Scootney Wasteway. That work involves widening the canal, constructing additional barrels for five concrete siphons, and installing five additional radial gates. The additional barrels will more than double the flow capacity of the siphons.

In April, ECBID broke ground on the first two additional siphon barrels. The two Lind Coulee siphon barrels are 14 feet, 8 inches in inner diameter and are made with 17‑inch-thick, double-matted rebar concrete.

The barrels are 1,895 and 2,592 linear feet, respectively.

Siphon construction will cost $14 million.

The district expects to break ground on the EL47.5 pump plant and delivery pipeline this winter.

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Lind Coulee siphon barrel placement.

Irrigation Leader

Meeting Immediate Needs

While the district is proceeding with ELC improvements and design of delivery systems that will serve the Odessa Subarea, the ECBID board of directors has permitted eligible landowners to enter into water service contracts with the district and use their own pumps and pipelines to access water from the ELC. This is a limited effort to deliver water to some farmers that can take advantage of it immediately while design and construction of the larger, more comprehensive district delivery systems move forward.

The board has made 7,700 acres of this groundwater replacement water available, and to date, the district issued 2,000 acres of water service contracts. These contracts are signed with the landowners understanding that they may potentially have to abandon their own infrastructure and eventually take their water from a district system in the future.

valuable information to help us target designs to fit their needs as best as possible.

Levi Johnson is the development coordinator for the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District. You can reach Levi at (509) 488‑9671 or ljohnson@ecbid.org.

Funding

ECBID received a $26 million Washington State Department of Ecology grant to fund current OGWRP implementation activities. The district is also working toward the issuance of a tax-exempt revenue bond this winter. The bond would cover the construction costs of the EL47.5 delivery system and a portion of the remaining ELC improvements necessary for full OGWRP implementation.

Mechanical forms being removed from recently finished Lind Coulee siphon barrel section.

Partners and Outreach

The ECBID board has been very supportive of moving forward and continues to provide the necessary direction to implement the program. The Department of Ecology and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, key partners over the last decade in this effort, have also been incredibly supportive in getting groundwater replacement water on the ground.

District landowner outreach has focused on potential project beneficiaries. The purpose of this outreach is to provide information and updates to landowners who are contemplating entering into a water service contract. It also allows the district to gauge the interest in receiving surface water and to answer questions about what it means to enter into a water service contract and be part of an irrigation district.

Over the last couple of years, ECBID has hosted large general information forums as well as detailed, system-specific landowner meetings and individual landowner meetings—all focusing on design and alignment of the proposed delivery systems and fielding more in-depth questions. It has been an educational process for both the landowners and the district.

Potential beneficiaries have provided the district with

Irrigation Leader

Boe Clausen, president of the ECBID board, signing the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation master service water contract on September 2, 2015, for water delivery to 10,000 acres of the Odessa.

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Columbia Basin Hydropower

By Tim Culbertson

I

n May 1980, the boards of directors of the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, and the Quincy Columbia Basin Irrigation District entered into an agreement for the development, operation, and maintenance of hydroelectric generating facilities to be developed on the irrigation systems of the Columbia Basin Project (CBP). The agreement created the Grand Coulee Project Hydroelectric Authority (GCPHA) to develop, operate, and maintain hydroelectric projects within the CBP. The GCPHA has the rights and obligations to perform the power development responsibilities as the agent and the representative of the districts. This past March, the board of directors of the GCPHA changed the entity’s name to Columbia Basin Hydropower (CB Hydropower) and established its business headquarters in Ephrata, Washington.

CB Hydropower operates and maintains five power developments—Main Canal Headworks, Summer Falls, Russell D. Smith, Eltopia Branch Canal 4.6, and Potholes East Canal 66.0 (PEC) Headworks—and serves as liaison to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the Quincy Chute and PEC Headworks.

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Summer Falls, a 94-megawattcapacity hydropower project.

CB Hydropower does not have authority to act as a utility, so it sells wholesale. The five projects that we operate supply power to the Cities of Seattle and Tacoma. The energy output from the other two projects, Quincy Chute and PEC Headworks, goes to Grant County Public Utilities District.

Rebranding

Our new name signifies a move to rebrand and differentiate the organization from the Bureau of Reclamation. The old name created confusion because people consistently considered our organization as part of Grand Coulee Dam. The fact that we worked in a Reclamation building compounded that confusion.

With the new name—Columbia Basin Hydropower— we signify our autonomy and highlight that we are a subdivision of the three irrigation districts that make up the CBP. As the GCPHA, we did not have a website or much recognition in the power community. We were heavily involved in the water community. As CB Hydropower, we have become more active in the Northwest Hydroelectric Association and are raising our profile through existing trade and utility associations. We have also established a website to raise our visibility Irrigation Leader

and highlight our history, as well as emphasize the opportunities before us.

Projects in the Pipeline

There is an opportunity for CB Hydropower to develop incremental sites with the onset of recent small hydropower legislation and associated funding opportunities. We have identified four conduit-type sites and one large pumped storage project adjacent to Grand Coulee Dam and the existing Keys Pumping Plant. By the end of this year, we are likely to make a recommendation to the board to build out four proposed conduit projects in Franklin County. We have been in discussions with the Franklin County Public Utilities District and others regarding power purchase agreements for those projects.

We are also assessing available technologies to facilitate the development of those sites. Two of the sites likely would use conventional hydropower, and two would employ low-head hydropower technology.

CB Hydropower is in talks with Natel Energy to work on those low-head sites. We have visited Natel’s first installation site in Oregon and are currently exchanging data to determine the feasibility of hydropower on the proposed sites.

Additionally, we are waiting for Reclamation to release preliminary assessment data on a number of sites in the Columbia River basin. We think there will be 30 to 50 more sites worth investigating for conduit projects. That is why we are seeking out technology that we can replicate, and why we have reached out to Natel.

North Dam Project

There has been a lot of interest in pumped storage projects, which often require new reservoirs and bring accompanying environmental issues. The North Dam project would use Lake Roosevelt and Banks Lake, two huge reservoirs the have long, sustained peaking capabilities, to produce 500 megawatts of power. While most pump storage projects only cycle water for a number of hours a day, the North Dam project would have 35 to 38 hours of sustained peaking capability. The project provides power support, capacity, and frequency regulation. This project provides all of the attributes that utilities consider ancillary and flexibility resources.

When we originally filed for the North Dam site, Reclamation wrote a strong letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opposing development of the site due to concerns about operational disruptions. We believe we have alleviated those concerns, and at this point in time, Reclamation is working cooperatively with us on the project. We now meet with the Bonneville

Irrigation Leader

The Mesa check.

Power Administration and the Bureau of Reclamation on a monthly basis to try to keep this project moving forward.

We have been back to Washington, DC, to discuss the project. The U.S. Department of Energy has a large sum of money available in its loan program that would significantly impact the financial viability of this project.

The Northwest's federal hydropower system flexibility is near full capacity. The variable speed pumps of the proposed North Dam are projected to run at 80 percent efficiency—15–20 percent more efficient than the pumping technology used currently at Keys Pumping Plant at Grand Coulee Dam. Pump storage projects are net energy users. Keys pumps water from Roosevelt into Banks Lake, priming the entire Columbia River basin system. It is old and needs significant investment in rehabilitation. U.S. Department of Energy funds might be better spent on new plant.

As the region looks to energy imbalance markets and California weighs increasing its renewable standards to 50 percent by 2030, this project can fill real needs in those markets. Most of the storage proposed in the Pacific Northwest is battery, which is 5 to 10 times more expensive and has a larger carbon footprint than hydropower storage. CB Hydropower’s next steps on the North Dam project are to continue the dialogue with Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration and to market the project across the region, especially to those utilities that will have peaking needs in the early 2020s.

Tim Culbertson is the secretary-manager of Columbia Basin Hydropower. Tim can be reached at (509) 754‑2227 or TCulbertson@cbhydropower.org.

17

Forecasting Water Supply and Demand for the

Columbia River Basin

By Chad Kruger, Jennifer Adam, and Georgine Yorgey

S

ecuring a sustainable water supply for irrigation in the western United States has never been a more pressing sustainability question than it is now. Drought throughout the region over the past few months and years has demonstrated precisely how vulnerable our agriculture and food system is to water shortages. Improving our ability to project future water supply and demand is critical to securing water for agriculture through policy, infrastructure, technology, and management.

Since its establishment in 2006, the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River (OCR) has rapidly improved water supply for eastern Washington, with approximately 150,000 acre-feet already developed and another 200,000 acre-feet in near-term development. In a manner consistent with its legislative directives, OCR is developing a portfolio of diverse projects, including modification of existing storage, new storage facilities, conservation piping and canal lining projects, transmission piping projects, and water right acquisitions.

Every five years, OCR is required to submit a longterm water supply and demand forecast to the legislature.

The 2016 forecast will improve understanding of where additional water supply is most critically needed, now and in the future—and thus will help OCR to strategically fund future water projects. The forecast provides a generalized, system-wide assessment of how future environmental and economic conditions are likely to change water supply and demand by 2035. Supply and

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demand are evaluated for three geographic areas: the entire Columbia River basin, eastern Washington’s watersheds, and Washington’s Columbia River mainstem.

The forecast is being carried out by team of Washington State University researchers, collaborating with other entities (Aspect Consulting and the University of Utah) and coordinated with the Department of Ecology. The current forecast builds on tools developed for the 2011 forecast, which is available at http://www.ecy. wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/forecast/forecast.html.

The approach used for forecasting includes the development and integration of three modeling tools into a biophysical modeling framework (a cropping systems model, a macro-scale hydrology model, and a reservoir management model). The models for land surface hydrology and cropping systems are tightly coupled, meaning that they pass multiple pieces of information back and forth; this tool can be applied to both dryland and irrigated crop lands from watershed to global scales. The coupled crops/hydrology model (VICCropSyst) is linked with water resources management modules (including reservoir operations and water rights curtailment) that allow for prediction of the effects of water scarcity (in space and time) on agricultural productivity. This biophysical modeling framework is linked to economic decisionmaking for both long- and short-term agricultural producer responses and runs under a range of scenarios.

Key results from the 2011 forecast include that by the 2030s: • Average annual water supplies for the Columbia River basin will increase 3 percent.

Irrigation Leader

• Streamflow changes will shift water away from times when demands are highest—a 14 percent decrease from June to October and an 18 percent increase from November to May. • Irrigation demand in Washington State resulting from changes in climate (on existing irrigated acreage) is expected to increase by 4 percent.

For the 2016 forecast, we are using a substantially improved modeling platform that improves framework integration and feedbacks; irrigation technology, management, consumptive losses; reservoirs and curtailment modeling; and multiple-time-period economics (within-season, multiyear, and long-term). The platform also improves climate forecast data, provides an in-depth analysis of the Yakima River basin, and incorporates additional modules based on stakeholder input. Results from the 2016 forecast will be available in late 2016. The effort is described at http://www.ecy. wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/2016Forecast.html, and results will be posted on the Department of Ecology website.

Chad Kruger is the director of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. You can reach him cekruger@wsu.edu or (509) 663-8181 ×242.

The authors are members of the Columbia River Forecast Project Team, which includes J.C. Adam, M.G. Barik, G. Damiano, M. Liu, K. Malek, and T. Nguyen of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA; M.E. Barber and S. Dhungel of the Department of Civil & Environmental, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; M.P. Brady, B. Han, and J.K. Yoder of the School of Economics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA; R. Brownlee, T. Carlson, C. Einberge, J. Enyeart, D. Haller, S. McClure, J. McCormick, W. Valdez, P. Wittman, and B. Zimmerman of Aspect Consulting, WA; K.J. Chinnayakanahalli of AIR Worldwide, Boston, MA; C.E. Kruger and G.G. Yorgey of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University, Pullman, WA; C.O. Stockle of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA; and K. Rajagopalan of both the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, and the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University, Pullman, WA.

Georgine Yorgey is the assistant director of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University.

You can reach her at yorgey@wsu.edu.

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Dr. Jennifer Adam is the associate director of the State of Washington Water Research Center at Washington State University. You can reach her at jcadam@wsu.edu or (509) 335-7751.

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Collaborative Water Management:

The Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan

By G. Thomas Tebb The Yakima basin touches the lives and interests of countless people. Beer and wine enthusiasts may know it as the region that produces nearly 80 percent of the United States’ hops and 40 percent of Washington’s wine grapes. The Yakima basin is first in the nation in apple orchards and first in the state in other tree fruits, berries, and nuts. Beef and dairy consumers worldwide rely on alfalfa and timothy hay grown here, about 2.3 percent of the country’s total production. With the growth and processing of crops, the Yakima basin contributes over $4 billion annually to Washington’s economy. Culinary and environmental tourism generates another $375 million, as visitors hike and camp more than 400 trails, fish 65 miles of streams, and seek connection with pristine wild places.

However, insufficient water supply threatens all the Yakima basin has to offer. That’s why over the last 30 years, water interests have been working on an integrated approach to protect and bolster water supplies in this unique watershed.

All those orchards, fields, and vineyards rely on the Yakima River, its tributaries, and five Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs, but this infrastructure captures only 30 percent of the river’s average annual flow. For more than a century, the basin has relied on a sixth natural reservoir: mountain snowpack, which hydrates the valley throughout the summer as it slowly melts. This year, that reservoir failed to materialize, and current projections predict insufficient carryover from our lake reservoirs to supplement next year’s irrigation.

In addition, more water has been issued in water rights within the basin than is actually available. Those with water rights dating prior to May 10, 1905 (senior rights)

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receive 100 percent of their requirements, while post-1905 claims (junior water-right irrigators) split the difference, During drought years, junior rights holders may receive much less than what is needed to bring in their crops; 70 percent is considered the minimum necessary water allotment, but this year alone, their allocation dropped to 46 percent of the normal allotment. If this snowpack drought stretches on for another year, it will dip much lower.

With climatologists predicting milder winters and hotter summers, this year’s lack of snowpack has given Yakima basin water managers an alarming peek into the future—orchard and vineyard crops stressed and potentially lost entirely; trees brown; no second cuttings of hay; annual row crops, such as vegetables, corn, and potatoes, not planted or withering on the vine—creating an economic domino effect in a valley that helps feed the world.

Not only is it difficult for the Yakima’s existing water management system to meet the out-of-stream needs of farmers and residents during drought years, it struggles to maintain sufficient instream flows for fish and wildlife as well. Low stream flows raise instream temperatures, stranding fish in hot pools, thwarting spawning, and leading to early death.

Yes, such competing water needs have resulted in conflict over the years, and still do across the West. Similar conditions have caused vicious infighting and neverending litigation. In the Yakima basin, it’s resulted in the Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (Integrated Plan).

The Integrated Plan is a balanced package of actions to protect lands and waters, improve water quality, restore salmon and steelhead populations, improve built and

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natural infrastructure, drive a healthy economy, and return jobs to the forests. It is the result of 30 years of planning that says we are stronger together—that cooperation, negotiation, and compromise are not dirty words. It proves that a diverse group of stakeholders—including local, state, and federal government agencies; irrigators; farmers; tribal interests (the Yakima Nation); and environmental organizations—can sit at the same table and hammer out solutions that we not only can live with, but that will help the valley to thrive.

These historically contentious groups set aside their conflicts to design an adaptive framework addressing the many needs of water users within the basin. The plan is founded on seven key tenets: • establishing fish passage throughout the basin • expanding and creating new surface water storage • undertaking new groundwater storage efforts • instituting structural and operational changes at existing storage facilities • protecting and enhancing watershed, riparian, and aquatic habitats • increasing water conservation measures • developing more efficient market reallocation methods for water supplies The Integrated Plan takes a long view to be implemented over 30 years at a prorated cost of $3.8 billion. Funding takes a balanced approach as well, with state and local contributions augmented by federal sources and many infrastructure projects being funded by the water users themselves.

Since 2013, Washington State has invested approximately $167 million from its capital budget. These funds enabled the acquisition of 50,000 acres of forested watershed in the Teanaway area of Kittitas County and designated it as Washington’s first community forest; conserved 40,000 acre-feet of water through irrigation system efficiencies; led to the study, design, and initial construction of a 3‑foot pool raise at the Cle Elum Reservoir; and restored 5,000 acres of floodplain and shrub-steppe ecosystems. The Integrated Plan has already had phenomenal effects on the way water is used and conserved within the Yakima basin, but there is much yet to do.

Legislation to fund the first 10 years of the plan is currently before Congress. Co-sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, the Yakima Basin Water Enhancement Project Act of 2015 (S. 1694) authorizes the most urgently needed of the plan’s projects. Chief among these is a plan to construct a drought relief pumping plant at the Kachess Reservoir, Irrigation Leader

allowing irrigators to access an additional 200,000 acrefeet of water for existing farmland. In an unprecedented cooperative development, water users will fund this project out of pocket rather than the project being subsidized with taxpayer dollars.

Irrigation efficiencies funded by the plan will conserve up to an additional 85,000 acre-feet of water for instream uses, better regulating the flow conditions so desperately needed by fish and aquatic wildlife. The first decade of the plan will also see the installation of fish passage at two Reclamation reservoirs and support of a wild and scenic designation for the aquatic habitat located above the dams.

Additional groundwater storage, floodplain restoration, and tributary reconnection projects all contribute to the continuing health of the watershed and the water security of those who live, work, and play within it.

Achieving these goals will benefit the Yakima basin’s citizens, economy, and environment. Farmers can count on more reliable water supplies during drought, even those who would normally suffer expensive losses due to rationing. More water will be available for community use as systems are made more efficient and flexible water trading programs are enacted basin-wide.

The restoration of fish passage and aquatic habitat will aid the recovery of trout and salmon, which vanished from the basin after their spawning grounds became inaccessible more than a century ago. Reestablishing these fish is of immeasurable value to the Yakama Nation and has the potential to create the largest sockeye salmon run in the lower 48 states, attracting anglers and enthusiasts to the region. These recreationists will enjoy better management of rivers, forests, campsites, and boat launches as management plans funded by the integrated plan go into effect.

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Perhaps the most valuable outcome of the Integrated Plan is the cooperation it has created among water users within the basin. Stakeholder partnerships allow for faster, more innovative responses to emergencies.

Already, outreach and education materials produced by the Washington State Department of Ecology, local water management entities, and integrated plan staff are increasing community preparedness and resilience in the face of climate change.

Earlier this summer—in the midst of a drought— junior water rights–holder Kittitas Reclamation District was able to reroute water meant for downstream irrigators into six dewatered creeks. Water still reached its intended users, but along the way, it revived wilting riparian areas and brought cold, clean water to fish trapped in isolated pools. Creative responses like these represent just one of the many ways the Integrated Plan has proven itself to be the adaptive management solution the Yakima basin needs, as well as a potential model for water dispute settlement in the West.

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Learn more about the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan at http://www.ecy. wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/YBIP.html.

Reports and Documents: http://www.usbr.gov/pn/ programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/index.html “This River Runs Forever” video: http://www. yakimariver.org/ G. Thomas Tebb, LHg, LEG, is the director of the Office of the Columbia River for the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Tom has over 31 years of environmental and engineering experience in both the private and public sectors. Prior to his most recent appointment as director of the Office of the Columbia River, Tom severed as regional director for the Department of Ecology in its Central Regional Office located in Yakima; he began in that position in 2008. You can reach Tom at (509) 574‑3989 or GTEB461@ecy.wa.gov.

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The Impact of the Chelan Complex Fire on the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District

By Mike Miller

T

his fire season in north-central Washington has been one of the worst on record. I cannot recall a firestorm of the magnitude of the Chelan Complex Fire. The fire has destroyed residences and businesses, downed power lines, and halted pumping operations.

According to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, as of August 22, the approximate acreage impacted by the Chelan Complex fire is 86,412 acres. Nearly 1,000 personnel are working to stem its tide and help those in need.

Since the fire reached our boundaries on Friday, August 14, crews from the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District (GWID) have been working to protect GWID’s infrastructure and aid in local firefighting efforts. As I was pulling into my driveway on the evening of August 14, I received a call from our Chelan unit reporting a power outage. One of our crew members responding to the alarm was unable to get to the unit because there was a fire in his path.

The power outage meant that we could not pump water from our source, the Columbia River, to GWID water users. All of our Howard Flats water users, located north of Chelan on the western bank of the Columbia River, were affected.

While I knew of lightening strikes that morning, it was not until I drove into the town of Chelan that I began to fully understand the level of destruction. The town and its surrounding areas were on fire. The area was engulfed in smoke, and helicopters were dropping water on the town.

At that point, I knew the district was in real trouble.

Radio reports described power lines down across U.S. Route 97A. At that time, I did not know whether the lines were owned by GWID or the Chelan Public Utility District. There are close to 10 miles of GWID power lines in that area along Route 97A that provide power from the

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Bonneville Power Administration to our pumps.

When I came upon the scene, I saw the downed lines were owned by GWID. After we cleared the road, I drove to the first pumping plant to check it out.

A fire was burning up the hill toward an above-ground pipeline. The thick, black smoke was hindering the firefighters from getting to the flats above to do their job. We were scrambling to get a gas-powered pump started. We eventually started a siphon with the hose from the pump to get the pipeline under control.

As the fire was moving toward the pumping plants, we decided to flood them. We opened up every valve and drain that we could to get water running around the pumping plant to protect the infrastructure. We did the same to the transformer yard and a substation.

I also reached out to the Bureau of Reclamation for 480‑volt generators. Reclamation delivered two the following day. We placed one down by the Columbia River to power a pump that puts out 1,900 gallons per minute.

Normally, GWID pumps around 10,000 gallons per minute in this area. Above that position, we ran two smaller pumps—one with a variable frequency drive to match what was being pumped up from below. Ultimately, in the seven and a half days that we ran the generators, GWID burned $7,000 in fuel.

With those pumps, GWID provided water for irrigating the orchards. We were trying to make sure that stressed trees were able to get some water to prevent death or stunted production for next year. Most of GWID’s water users were very helpful, using only the minimum they needed so their neighbors might access some of the water.

We also made water available for dust control for the helicopters. The time frame for the water trucks to get a load out of the Columbia River and turn it around back to

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the helo pad was two hours. We were trying to cut down on that time by letting them take water out of our system.

We had one helicopter that could not take off because dust control could not reach it quickly enough. We were told they had a fire crew that was in trouble and that they needed to have water right away. I told them to go ahead and take it. They were able to run over, fill up the truck, and get water for that crew.

As of Saturday, August 22, the power line is back up and in operation. The pumps are running. We replaced 26 power poles in some of very difficult terrain. GWID hired crews from the Wilson Construction Company—I commend them for getting poles in place and wire hung with a minimal amount of equipment. Several local public utility district crews stopped by to let us know that the Wilson crews had done incredible work. In a Wenatchee World newspaper story on the Wilson crew, I stated that the crew had creative solutions to replace lines in some of the most challenging locations.

Looking back on the experience, I am proud of the work of local fire crews and of my own crew. Working together, we helped bring water back to the orchards. Our crew put in around 16 to 18 hours a day for the week. As for lessons learned, I think GWID will have to look at spending more money on fire retardant for our power poles. We also have to look at keeping power poles, cross arms, and hardware in stock to quickly address issues. It is not something you can run down to the hardware store and buy.

Our immediate next steps will be to seek out funding sources to help offset the costs of this firestorm.

Mike Miller has been with the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District for 25 years, the last 8 as general manager. You can reach Mike at (509) 670‑1327 or mikem@gwid.org.

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Wilson Construction supervisor Chad Devine (without a hat) and his “A team.”

The Wilson Construction crew pulling a truck up a bluff with an excavator. With the Columbia River 2,500 feet below, the bluff is too steep to drive up.

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Rising to the Challenge at Reclamation’s Columbia-Cascades Area Office

By Dave Walsh

partnerships that bring all the players to the table.

At Cle Elum Dam, northwest of Ellensburg, Washington, supporters gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the $130 million Cle Elum Fish Passage project in late August.

The Cle Elum Fish Passage project is a one-of-a-kind, high-tech fish passage facility that will meet biological needs without impacting irrigation deliveries. It is also the first of several large-scale construction projects outlined in the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (Integrated Plan). The plan identifies a comprehensive approach to water resources and ecosystem restoration improvements in the face of ongoing climate change and drought.

It is this type of cutting-edge, collaborative planning and program implementation that has made Reclamation’s Columbia-Cascades Area Office (CCAO) a leader in Washington State water management. Its staff of hydrologists, biologists, planners, and engineers, led by Area Manager Dawn Wiedmeier and Technical Projects Program Manager Wendy Christensen, has been working tenaciously to address two nagging water shortage problems: complex water issues in the Yakima basin and continued groundwater decline in the Odessa Subarea. Both issues have presented unique challenges and have been addressed through dynamic

Optimizing Compromise: The Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan Like many areas in the West, the Yakima basin has always been dependent on reliable snowpack as a sixth reservoir to supplement water supplies to its five Reclamation-managed reservoirs. Frequently, demand for irrigation water often exceeds supply, especially in dry and drought years, leading to severe prorationing for junior water users. In 2015, that supply was cut to 46 percent of their entitlement.

In 2009, the Yakima Water Resource Management Workgroup was formed by tribal, federal, state, local, private, and environmental organizations to fund projects beneficial to both the environment and communities. The Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (Integrated Plan) grew out of this partnership. It includes seven elements to address a variety of water resource and ecosystem issues affecting fish passage and habitat, along with agricultural, municipal, and domestic water supplies.

In addition, the plan has built-in adaptability for population growth and climate change.

A key strategy of the Integrated Plan is optimizing compromise. Reclamation’s Regional Director Lorri Lee says that the Integrated Plan’s success is “that everybody gets

Cle Elum fish passage.

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something but nobody gets everything.”

The Integrated Plan’s initial development phase (2013–2023) advances all seven plan elements and represents approximately one-third of the estimated plan cost (about $900 million). Key projects include Cle Elum Dam Fish Passage Facilities; Cle Elum Pool Raise; Kachess Drought Relief Pumping Plant and Keechelusto-Kachess Conveyance; and various projects associated with each element of the Integrated Plan, such as habitat and tributary restoration, agricultural conservation, and groundwater recharge. Federal authorization is being pursued by nonfederal partners for the suite of projects identified in the Integrated Plan.

While work begins this fall to lay the foundation for the Cle Elum Dam Fish Passage project (CEFP), an important goal has been met by the Integrated Plan partners and CCAO. For the first time in Yakima basin history, upon completion of construction, fish passage will be achieved at a large storage dam. Further, the facility will use helix technology refined by a team of engineers and biologists from Reclamation’s Denver-based Technical Service Center, the Yakama Tribe, and Washington State. Fish will flow freely downstream while the dam and associated facilities continue to meet water deliveries. When authorized and constructed, the CEFP will be the first of many projects to show that the Integrated Plan delivers.

Odessa Ground Water Replacement Moves Forward Approximately 100 miles northeast of Yakima, near Ephrata, Washington, is the Columbia Basin Project (CBP).

It is often cited as the largest and most successful federal water project in the United States. The CBP, located in a vast, arid region in east-central Washington, irrigates about 680,000 of the 1,029,000 acres authorized to receive federal water supplies.

On the eastern edge of the CBP lies the Odessa Subarea. Many irrigators there have been waiting for CBP irrigation water for decades. In anticipation of surface water supply being available, Washington State permitted wells for groundwater supplies that allowed continued farming in the area in the 1970s. Each year, irrigators have been forced to drill ever-deeper wells. By 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that the Odessa Subarea was running dry.

Severe economic effects were imminent. A collaborative solution was sought.

Now, more than 75 years since authorization of the CBP, with some wells already dry, the Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program has expanded the irrigation infrastructure needed to deliver surface water to this area.

While it still does not complete the project, it will offer some relief to water shortages by tapping into water from the mighty Columbia River.

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The Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program is guided by a multiagency partnership, formed in 2004, that includes the Columbia Basin irrigation districts, the State of Washington (Department of Ecology and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife), and Reclamation.

Each partner has a role to play: the Washington State Department of Ecology provides infrastructure funding; the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID) manages construction contracting and oversight and landowner water delivery contracts; and Reclamation is responsible for engineering design, construction oversight, and environmental compliance.

The goal of the Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program is to move 87,000 acres of irrigated agricultural lands (70,000 acres specific to the Odessa Subarea project and 17, 000 acres that includes Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Release and Coordinated Conservation) off groundwater supplies and onto surface water served by the CBP. After years of study, planning, environmental review, and water rights acquisition, parts of the Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program are under construction or in development. The program has already met several benchmarks: • award of five new irrigation water service contracts for groundwater replacement to 1,835 acres (ECBID) • construction of Lind Coulee siphons #1 and #2, 20 miles southeast of Moses Lake, Washington (ECBID) • $31.7 million in state funding to widen and improve the East Low Canal, a 44‑mile section from Interstate 90 to the Scooteney Wasteway (Washington State) • renewal of a master water service contract for 30,000 acres, pending signature by ECBID (Reclamation) • proposed development of seven pump stations and pipeline systems to carry East Low Canal water to the farmers’ lands (ECBID) • marketing tax-exempt municipal revenue bonds to finance pump and pipeline construction (ECBID) Reclamation looks forward to continuing to work together with Washington State and the Columbia basin irrigation districts to stabilize water supplies for the region and lessen the depletion of the Odessa Subarea aquifer.

“Our work in Odessa and on the Integrated Plan shows that Reclamation is focused on finding win-win solutions that will lead to positive outcomes for regional stakeholders,” said Ms. Lee. Dave Walsh is the visual information specialist in the public affairs office of the Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region. Dave can be reached at (208) 378-5026 or dwalsh@usbr.gov.

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District Focus

Wenatchee Reclamation District

By Rick Smith

W

enatchee Reclamation District (WRD) is an independent irrigation district that serves residential accounts and agricultural lands in the Wenatchee Valley of Washington State.

It draws its water from the Wenatchee River basin to irrigate apple, pear, and cherry orchards as well as residential properties in Chelan and Douglas Counties.

WRD’s senior water rights trace back to May 12, 1902. With a combination of canals, flumes, pipelines, and bridges, the Wenatchee Canal Company constructed a gravity flow water conveyance system along the foothills above the river from an area below the community of Dryden east to the Wenatchee Valley. A siphon, constructed on a bridge, was used to bring the water across the Wenatchee River at the north end of the Wenatchee Valley. The siphon discharged into the Highline Canal.

This system served major portions of Chelan County, and much of the original canal system is still in operation. However, the company struggled to fund the ongoing maintenance of a system where wood flumes were prone to leakage and potential washouts.

In those years, the delivery of water was sporadic, making fruit production difficult.

In 1914, water users petitioned Chelan County commissioners to establish an irrigation district. And in 1915, WRD was formed. Through this formation under Washington code, district assessments attached to lands served by the district, securing the funds needed for flume maintenance and the development of tunnels to improve water delivery for users.

The district has 200 cubic feet per second of water rights from the Wenatchee River. It delivers water to more than 9,000 water users across 12,500 acres with 800 points of delivery. This includes lands in Chelan and Douglas Counties.

the property of WRD in 1952, and the two 36‑inch conduits were replaced with a single 46‑inch steel conduit inside the truss.

The bridge continues to be a valuable public asset.

In 1992, the district entered into an agreement with the City of Wenatchee for public recreational use of the bridge. This connected a trail loop, the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail, used for walking and biking.

More recently, the district has invested significant money for repairs to the structure. In 2009, in conjunction with the City of Wenatchee, the district finished a two-year, $1.5 million project to repair and paint the bridge.

Today, the district continues to own and maintain the bridge for delivery of water into Douglas County.

Conservation and Maintenance

Canal and flume linings are the main components of the district’s water conservation plan. The district has developed a comprehensive shotcrete and Aqualastic™ application program. WRD has completed the lining of nearly 70 percent completion of its infrastructure.

The district acquired the equipment needed for its own shotcrete application program, and each year, it analyses the system for areas needing shotcrete. Within the last five years, it has upgraded five concrete flumes with Aqualastic™. The district purchased a lowpressure Aqualastic™ machine for the applications.

Columbia River Bridge

There is a lot of history behind the development of the Columbia River Bridge. In 1908, developers came together to build a bridge across the river.

The design was for a pin truss steel bridge spanning 1,000 feet across the mighty Columbia. It was the first vehicular bridge to cross the river and was also used to move water. Two 36‑inch wood stave pipes were set cantilevered on each side of the truss.

In 1951, a new highway bridge was open for traffic south of the pipeline bridge. The old bridge became

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Rick Smith at a Columbia River Bridge historical marker with the bridge in the background.

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By doing all the work in-house, WRD saved enough in labor costs to help fund its lining program.

The district, through its shotcrete and Aqualastic™ program, has significantly improved the efficiency of the system.

Watershed Planning

In the late 1990s, WRD, in conjunction with the City of Wenatchee and Chelan County, initiated a planning process to improve the health of the Wenatchee River watershed. We have been actively addressing issues in the watershed, including water quantity and quality, instream flows, and fish and wildlife habitat. The work has led to the Wenatchee Watershed Management Plan and its subsequent implementation. This effort has brought together many diverse interests, making the work both challenging and rewarding. Planning implementation continues to make significant progress today.

The Value of Quality Employees

Each year, the district evaluates the condition of its 800 points of delivery, and during the off-season, district employees construct new diversion boxes to replace those earmarked for replacement. Historically, the boxes were built of redwood, a labor-intensive process.

Therefore, only a few boxes could be built and replaced each year. However, in 1997 the district erected a new building at its current location, which brought the office, boardroom, and shop to one location. The building includes a weld shop where employees fabricate steel diversion boxes, thereby increasing production.

The district has a talented crew of 12 full-time employees, including welders and shotcrete applicators.

If there is a washout, their skills and talent help to get repairs done efficiently. More than once, WRD has had water go out one day, made repairs with shotcrete the next, and returned water back into the system the third day.

It is a great benefit for the district to have the equipment and quality employees.

Rick Smith is the secretary/manager of the Wenatchee Reclamation District.

He began his career with the district 36 years ago as a canal patrolman.

He is a member of the board of directors of the Washington State Water Resources Association and chairs the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board. You can reach Rick at (509) 663‑0002 or rsmithwrd@aol.com.

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WRD crews applying shotcrete to district canals.

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Bryan Alford, South Columbia Irrigation District

S

outh Columbia Basin Irrigation District (SCBID) uses 1,000 miles of canals and laterals to divert an average 850,000 acre-feet of water to irrigate 234,000 acres of farmland. The topography of SCBID requires the district to move water with 200 relift pumps. In addition, SCBID maintains 400 miles of open drains and 1,000 miles of closed drains. SCBID growers produce more than 70 crops valued at over $650 million, including apples, cherries, wine grapes, potatoes, alfalfa, and a variety of specialty crops.

Bryan Alford has been farming in the Columbia Basin Project for 37 years.

Alford Farms has been a family effort— Mr. Alford took over the reigns from his parents, and now his son is involved in the day-to-day operations. Mr. Alford has been an SCBID board member for more than 20 years, helping the district facilitate increases in farming production and address urbanization. He also sits on the board of Columbia Basin Hydropower. Irrigation Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, spoke with Mr. Alford about his farm, the role of a board director, and the future of SCBID. John Crotty: Please describe your farming operations.

Bryan Alford: I am a second-generation farmer.

My parents came here in 1954 with the opening of the Columbia Basin Project. They started out, much like everyone else out here, breaking the ground out of sagebrush to develop an irrigation system.

We are long-time potato growers. We grow around 2,000 acres a year. We grow Russet-type potatoes. They go to processors like ConAgra, Simplot, and McCain Foods for french fries. We are almost 100 percent center pivot on our potatoes. We also run a small apple operation—160 acres—that we acquired back in 1996. We grow Gala, Pink Lady, and Scarlet.

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John Crotty: How did you first become involved with SCBID? Bryan Alford: South [Columbia Basin Irrigation District] has five director districts. Directors are elected every three years. I was first appointed to the board back in 1991. One of the board members resigned, and I was appointed by the county commissioners to finish the term.

I then ran for reelection and have been reelected ever since. I have been on the board for a total of 24 years.

Prior to my appointment to the irrigation district board, I had not been involved with the district. I was on the planning commission for Franklin County. So I was at least familiar with some of the local politics.

Irrigation Leader

My district has more landowners than the other districts within SCBID. It is closer to Pasco and has more urbanization—we have lands converting from agriculture to residential. We are seeing more of that now than we have ever seen in the district.

John Crotty: What makes for a successful relationship between a board and a district manager?

Bryan Alford: The important thing is to communicate what you feel you would like the manager to be doing and have a shared vision of where the district should go. That process starts from the very beginning, which is the hiring of the manager. The manager is the primary interface for the board.

It is the board’s job to do three things. One is to have a strategic vision for the district. Another is to hire a competent manager to see that vision through. We have a great one in Dave Solem. The last is to set and approve a budget. Then we let the manager run the district.

John Crotty: What is the most important thing you have learned as a board director?

Bryan Alford: I am still amazed at how little I actually knew about district facilities and operations when I first started on the board. . . . I have learned a great deal since. It is a large district—230,000 acres covering three counties—with hundreds of miles of canals and laterals, pump stations, lift stations, and reservoirs. All those features have their own operational practices.

John Crotty: From the board’s perspective, what is the biggest challenge facing the district?

Irrigation Leader

Bryan Alford: Our biggest challenge is addressing aging infrastructure and modernizing the district. From a technology standpoint, the district has not kept up with what is happening on the farm. The challenge for us is our size; it will take a lot of money to upgrade. Our district is over 60 years old—things start to break down. We have to stay on top of our infrastructure through upgrades and improvements.

All three Columbia basin irrigation districts are focusing on the John Keys Pumping Plant at Grand Coulee Dam. The basin districts do not have a routing diversion; we have a pumped withdrawal from Lake Roosevelt into Banks Lake. It is going to take another 10 years for modernization of that plant. The plant is the heart of the Columbia basin project.

The basin districts currently irrigate 670,000 acres, and we aim to increase that to 750,000 acres in the next few years when we get the Odessa project online. All of the farmers involved with the project have a stake in that plant. It is our net worth. The future value of our land and our companies relies upon it.

John Crotty: Where would you like to see SCBID in the future?

Bryan Alford: Ultimately, we are blessed to have a plentiful water supply in the Columbia River and a relatively reliable delivery system.

My vision is for improved facilities that make the system more user friendly for landowners. The board is also working toward adopting more automation and more conservation projects through pipeline installation and canal lining.

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Water Law

Irrigation on the Mid-Columbia

By Bob Siderius

T

he Columbia River, one of the largest river systems in North America, provides hydroelectric power throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond, as well as flood control from the Canadian border past Portland and out to Astoria on the Pacific Ocean.

The Columbia Basin Project (CBP) may be the best known of the federal government’s efforts to reclaim land and put to beneficial use the vast quantities of water flowing in the Columbia River.

The Bureau of Reclamation estimates that the CBP, located on what is referred to as the mid-Columbia River, currently serves approximately 671,000 acres of land in eastern Washington.

Congress created multiple irrigation districts to help with the delivery of Columbia River water to lands considered irrigable but that, prior to the construction of the Columbia River system of dams, were desert wasteland. In addition to creating the irrigation districts, Congress authorized and paid for the construction of infrastructure needed for the delivery of the irrigation water. Congress also made available low-cost power from the hydroelectric projects in order to run the pumps and other equipment necessary to deliver the water from the Columbia River to the irrigation district customers.

The irrigation districts, in turn, pay back a portion of the development costs through long-term repayment contracts.

These congressionally authorized irrigation districts have contributed to the development of tens of thousands of acres of fertile farmland. Low-cost water has assisted farmers in their efforts to produce highquality crops that can be sold at competitive prices.

A variety of issues now confront the midColumbia irrigation districts as we move into a time of climate change and increased awareness of and sensitivity to the environmental effects of the Columbia River dams. Following are a few of the issues confronting eastern Washington irrigation districts.

Climate Change and Resource Allocation

Irrigation districts in eastern Washington have the benefit of drawing water from drainage basins and aquifers regulated by Washington State, through its Department of Ecology, and also water controlled by

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the Bureau of Reclamation. Some districts operate entirely using state water permits, some entirely with Reclamation water, and some with a combination of both.

The districts dependent on state-regulated waters face far more critical issues with water shortages than those relying on Reclamation water. The Department of Ecology reports that 44 percent of Washington’s rivers are at their lowest level in 64 years of recordkeeping (as of August 2015). Precipitation has been 51 percent of normal. Snowpacks that typically feed the state river systems are virtually nonexistent.

The result is less water available to irrigators, and therefore to farmers, with particular challenges to those holding less-senior water rights.

The Columbia River drainage basin, which extends north into British Columbia and east into Montana, has been far less affected by the drought. Precipitation and snowpack are close to normal. The water supply forecasts for the Columbia River are far closer to normal than the forecasts for other Washington river systems.

Normal stream flows on the Columbia River, however, do not necessarily mean normal operations for many eastern Washington irrigation districts.

Water can only be delivered through pumps that use considerable amounts of power. While Congress authorized the use of low-cost power as part of the legislation creating the districts, the costs associated with delivering the power can fall on the district.

For example, the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District repayment contract states, “Where power and energy are transmitted over lines and facilities other than those of the United States, the annual power charge to the District will include charges for such transmission pursuant to the terms of contractual arrangements to be made by the United States.” The contract goes on to state, “The District may . . . enter into contractual arrangements for the transmission of power and energy over lines and facilities other than those of the United States. Those power and energy transmission costs which, as a result of such contractual arrangements, are not to be a responsibility of the United States will not be included in the above–said power charge to the District.”

The practical effect of this language is to place on the irrigation district the responsibility of paying for any power delivered from or over facilities other than those of the United States. Where power generation Irrigation Leader

and transmission is through a local public utility district, for instance, the irrigation district is responsible for those power and energy transmission costs.

Long-term contracts with local, nonfederally owned utility companies, entered into with the creation of the irrigation districts, allowed for the delivery of the low-cost power to pumping stations. As those long-term contracts expire, irrigation districts will have to negotiate for the delivery of power and payment of the associated costs.

Those costs can be many times the cost that would result from delivery of power through facilities operated by the Bonneville Power Administration, and could potentially dramatically increase the costs of delivery of water to irrigation district customers.

The Columbia River Treaty

Another unknown but potentially costly matter involves the renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty, a remarkable treaty that stands as an example of international cooperation and involves the management of the Columbia River drainage basin. The treaty, fully ratified in 1964, provided for the construction of multiple dams and reservoirs in Canada and Montana, allowing for control of river flows in both Canada and the United States. The treaty allows for termination with 10 years’ notice beginning in 2014. Treaty renewal negotiations have already commenced.

The primary goals of the treaty were to manage river flows for flood control and hydroelectric power generation. For its part in assisting in the management of the Columbia River, Canada receives one-half of the downstream power benefits achieved (referred to as the Canadian entitlement).

Environmental considerations were far less important in 1964 than they are today. The environmental effects of the Columbia River dams and reservoirs, and the social and cultural impacts on the people of Canada’s First Nations, will be of principal concern to those renegotiating the treaty. The province of British Columbia, in issuing its “Columbia River Treaty Review, B.C. Decision,” noted that “the construction of the Treaty dams and reservoirs caused much hardship to communities and First Nations that were directly affected, and ongoing reservoir operations continue to cause negative environmental, social and economic impacts.” Despite that, the Canadian government recognizes the benefits of the treaty and intends to negotiate to allow for ongoing coordination of river flows.

The cost to the United States, and in turn to the irrigation districts that rely on the Columbia River, will not be insignificant. One of the principles of the B.C. Decision is “the ongoing impacts to the Canadian

Irrigation Leader

Columbia Basin to meet Treaty requirements should be acknowledged and compensated for. The level of benefits to the Province, which is currently solely in the form of the Canadian Entitlement, does not account for the full range of benefits in the United States . . . or the impacts in British Columbia.” It is clear that going forward, the Canadian government expects to receive far more than one-half of the downstream benefits achieved by hydroelectric power generation.

As negotiations continue, the issue of fish migration will likely be a topic of discussion. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent by the operators of the midColumbia dams in efforts to aid fish migration and restore fish habitats lost through construction of the dams.

However, the Grand Coulee Dam contains no fish ladders.

As a result, no reason existed for fish ladders on the dams constructed upriver of Grand Coulee Dam, such as those created through the Columbia River Treaty.

The environmental studies, the construction of fish ladders on existing dams, and the restoration of lost fish habitat are only a few of the potential costs involved in addressing the environmental and social impacts caused by the upper Columbia River dams and reservoirs. Those costs, along with any additional compensation paid to Canada under a renegotiated treaty, will increase the operations costs for all those who rely on the Columbia River. The mid-Columbia irrigation districts will not escape the effects of a renegotiated Columbia River Treaty.

Conclusion

The mid-Columbia irrigation districts, like all irrigation districts throughout the country, face their own unique challenges in operations. Drought, increased demand, environmental considerations of new and existing projects, and renegotiation of expiring long-term contracts are just a few of the challenges. Good minds are managing these challenges and working on solutions. Diligence and innovation will be needed to ensure that the farmers of eastern Washington can continue to produce the highquality crops at competitive prices for which this part of the country is known.

Robert R. Siderius is a principal with Jeffers, Danielson, Sonn & Aylward in Wenatchee, Washington. He has been with the firm since 1986. He is a past member of the Washington State Bar Association’s litigation section executive committee, serving as chair of the committee in the 2010–2011 year. You can reach Bob at (509) 662‑3685 or BobS@JDSALaw.com.

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The Fair Water Users Coalition represents entities that rely on water supply contained in federally owned lakes and reservoirs operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The primary mission of the coalition is to ensure that water supply costs from federal facilities are fair, affordable, and predictable.

The coalition was able to include language in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (section 1046(b)) that requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide operation and maintenance projects plans and cost estimates to contracting entities for a five-year period. This new law will greatly enhance the ability of water supply users to budget for this expense.

Current Priorities • WRRDA implementation • U.S. Government Accountability Office study on water supply and congressional outreach • Uniformity of projects considered as “joint use” • Credit for beneficial projects/practices • Calculating water supply costs It is our goal to continue to grow and have members in all 25 states that have U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes and reservoirs with water supply storage.

Please feel free to contact Paul Kalchbrenner, the executive director of The Fair Water Users Coalition, to discuss your specific issues and answer any questions you have about the coalition.

Mr. Kalchbrenner can be reached at (202) 6641102 or pkalchbrenner@engage-dc.com.

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2015 CALENDAR

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September 30–October 1 Texas Desalination Association, Texas Desal 2015, Austin, TX October 14–16

Texas Water Conservation Association, Fall Meeting, San Antonio, TX

October 27

Columbia Basin Development League, Conference and Annual Meeting, Moses Lake, WA

October 27

Utah Water Users Association, Utah Water Summit Conference, Provo, UT

October 28–30

WESTCAS, Fall Conference, Tucson, AZ

November 4–6

National Water Resources Association, Annual Conference, Denver, CO

November 17–20

United States Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Emerging Issues in Water Management Governance, Albuquerque, NM

November 19–20

Idaho Water Users Association, 32nd Annual Water Law Seminar, Boise, ID

November 22–24

Nebraska Water Resources Association & Nebraska State Irrigation Association, Joint Convention, Kearney, NE

December 1–4

Association of California Water Agencies, Fall Conference & Exhibition, Indian Wells, CA

December 9–11

North Dakota Joint Water Convention & Irrigation Workshop, Bismarck, ND

December 16–18

Colorado River Water Users Association, Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV

For more information on advertising in Irrigation Leader magazine, or if you would like a water event listed here, please phone (703) 517-3962 or e-mail Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

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