greg-cws
04-29-2009, 10:53 PM
$94M for Eastern Washington water projects
From Seattle PI
The federal government has approved more than $94 million in stimulus money for projects to improve water availability in arid Eastern Washington, including $50 million to funnel water from a Columbia River reservoir to farmers who rely on wells that are going dry.
Gov. Chris Gregoire lauded last week's move as one that would help address long-term water supply challenges.
But some conservation groups say the reservoir project could hardly be called "shovel ready" when the federal Bureau of Reclamation hasn't even completed its environmental review.
Columbia Riverkeeper and the Center for Environmental Law and Policy filed suit in December to block a plan to draw down Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia, to provide more water for salmon, agriculture, towns and businesses.
A committee of state and local officials, environmental groups, farm supporters and tribes agreed to the drawdown plan after the Legislature passed a bill in 2006 calling for new ways to ensure water supplies for growing communities in Eastern Washington and to boost summertime stream flows for salmon.
The plan would draw down Lake Roosevelt by as much as 132,500 acre-feet. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre to a depth of one foot, or about 325,850 gallons.
Some of that water will remain in the river for fish and some will be used for new municipal and industrial water rights along the Columbia.
The rest will provide irrigation for 10,000 acres of crops east of Moses Lake, where farmers have been relying on well water from the declining Odessa Aquifer, and to provide a more stable water supply for irrigators whose water rights are interrupted in drought years.
The Bureau of Reclamation has completed a draft environmental assessment and is now reviewing public comments.
The economic stimulus package approved by Congress is intended to immediately create jobs by spending money on "shovel ready" projects, such as infrastructure construction on roads and bridges, and keep the economy from falling into a deeper recession.
In their lawsuit, the two groups contend that the government failed to consider the effects of climate change on the Columbia River and the effects of exposing toxic slag deposited by the Teck Cominco smelter just north of the U.S.-Canadian border, among other things.
There was quite a debate, but Congress clearly said in the stimulus bill that an environmental review is required for projects to receive money, said Rachael Paschal Osborn, executive director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy.
"Part of being shovel ready is to have gone through that process, including potentially, litigation," she said. "And we're suing over the drawdown."
Instead, the environmental review is almost being treated as a rubber-stamp for a project, rather than a prior review, said Lauren Goldberg of Columbia Riverkeeper.
"The whole reason we've been concerned, and filed the lawsuit in the first place, is that the environmental assessment is supposed to inform governmental decision-making," she said.
Paschal Osborn said she was preparing a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar questioning the project.
"It's like, out of the blue, they're saying they're going to invest $50 million in this project that is an essential element of what we see as a project that has significant environmental impacts, and that is troubling," she said.
Bill Gray, assistant manager of the Upper Columbia area for the Bureau of Reclamation, declined to comment on the litigation, but said the agency is working through the environmental review and reviewing public comments.
Full article on Seattle PI:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_stimulus_water_projects.html (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_stimulus_water_projects.html)
From Seattle PI
The federal government has approved more than $94 million in stimulus money for projects to improve water availability in arid Eastern Washington, including $50 million to funnel water from a Columbia River reservoir to farmers who rely on wells that are going dry.
Gov. Chris Gregoire lauded last week's move as one that would help address long-term water supply challenges.
But some conservation groups say the reservoir project could hardly be called "shovel ready" when the federal Bureau of Reclamation hasn't even completed its environmental review.
Columbia Riverkeeper and the Center for Environmental Law and Policy filed suit in December to block a plan to draw down Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia, to provide more water for salmon, agriculture, towns and businesses.
A committee of state and local officials, environmental groups, farm supporters and tribes agreed to the drawdown plan after the Legislature passed a bill in 2006 calling for new ways to ensure water supplies for growing communities in Eastern Washington and to boost summertime stream flows for salmon.
The plan would draw down Lake Roosevelt by as much as 132,500 acre-feet. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre to a depth of one foot, or about 325,850 gallons.
Some of that water will remain in the river for fish and some will be used for new municipal and industrial water rights along the Columbia.
The rest will provide irrigation for 10,000 acres of crops east of Moses Lake, where farmers have been relying on well water from the declining Odessa Aquifer, and to provide a more stable water supply for irrigators whose water rights are interrupted in drought years.
The Bureau of Reclamation has completed a draft environmental assessment and is now reviewing public comments.
The economic stimulus package approved by Congress is intended to immediately create jobs by spending money on "shovel ready" projects, such as infrastructure construction on roads and bridges, and keep the economy from falling into a deeper recession.
In their lawsuit, the two groups contend that the government failed to consider the effects of climate change on the Columbia River and the effects of exposing toxic slag deposited by the Teck Cominco smelter just north of the U.S.-Canadian border, among other things.
There was quite a debate, but Congress clearly said in the stimulus bill that an environmental review is required for projects to receive money, said Rachael Paschal Osborn, executive director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy.
"Part of being shovel ready is to have gone through that process, including potentially, litigation," she said. "And we're suing over the drawdown."
Instead, the environmental review is almost being treated as a rubber-stamp for a project, rather than a prior review, said Lauren Goldberg of Columbia Riverkeeper.
"The whole reason we've been concerned, and filed the lawsuit in the first place, is that the environmental assessment is supposed to inform governmental decision-making," she said.
Paschal Osborn said she was preparing a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar questioning the project.
"It's like, out of the blue, they're saying they're going to invest $50 million in this project that is an essential element of what we see as a project that has significant environmental impacts, and that is troubling," she said.
Bill Gray, assistant manager of the Upper Columbia area for the Bureau of Reclamation, declined to comment on the litigation, but said the agency is working through the environmental review and reviewing public comments.
Full article on Seattle PI:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_stimulus_water_projects.html (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_stimulus_water_projects.html)