Images (right to left)  Odessa Subarea irrigation (John Osborn), Grand Coulee Dam and Lake Roosevelt (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation), “Bathtub ring”, Lake Roosevelt (Rachael Paschal Osborn), Smelter in Trail, British Columbia (John Osborn), Salmon jumping at Kettle Falls of the Columbia River (Ellis Morigeau, Teakle Collection, NW Room, Spokane Public Library)

Overview

The Lake Roosevelt Drawdown (aka the Lake Roosevelt “incremental releases program”) is a proposal to take water that is captured in Lake Roosevelt (the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam) and ship it to new Washington state water users.  Proposed new users include irrigators in the Odessa Subarea, who would receive water via pumps that lift the water 280 feet up out of Lake Roosevelt and deliver it via Banks Lake and the East Low Canal.  The Drawdown would also release extra water over Grand Coulee Dam, to be diverted out of the Columbia River by downstream municipalities and agricultural water users.  Finally, the proposal includes a “fish benefit” that would involve leaving some water in the Columbia River, purportedly to improve instream flows for endangered salmon.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation holds a state-issued water right to store 6.4 million acre feet (MAF) of water in Lake Roosevelt.  About 3 MAF of that storage is currently distributed to the Columbia Basin Project, a massive irrigation project that has transformed the Columbia Plateau from arid shrub-steppe habitat to about 650,000 acres of corn fields (okay, there are other crops too, but corn has become very popular lately, presumably driven by the bio-fuels mania).  The remaining 3.4 MAF of storage water was intended for the “second half” of the Columbia Basin irrigation project, which was never built due to environmental and economic concerns.  The second half concept has been re-dubbed the “Odessa Subarea Special Study” and USBR is now considering how to bring water to lands between Moses Lake and Ritzville – a proposal that is intimately related to the LR Drawdown but oddly being studied as a separate project. 

In order to facilitate these new water uses, the Bureau must obtain secondary water rights to divert water from Lake Roosevelt and ship it uphill to Odessa or downstream to other destinations.  In order for the Department of Ecology to issue those secondary water rights, the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requires environmental analysis.  Hence, Ecology has issued the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) that is open until June 30 for public comment.  Note that the SEIS is “supplemental” to a Programmatic EIS, issued in February 2007.  These EISs bring a whole new meaning to the term “inadequate” – both exhibiting ridiculous hypothetical content and a failure to comprehensively evaluate the impacts of various existing and proposed water projects in the region.

The Bureau of Reclamation recently applied for its secondary water rights and public notice will soon be published in papers throughout the Columbia Basin.  We are surprised at the Bureau’s willingness to agree to Washington state’s schemes to obtain water releases from Lake Roosevelt. One unanswered question involves the nature of USBR’s authority to give away its water rights in this manner.  According to the agreements it’s all revocable – but that’s not how it usually works with western water rights.  Once the water is gone, it is nearly impossible to get back.

The Lake Roosevelt Drawdown has numerous problems.  Here are a few:

oPermanence or the Lack Thereof:  There will be less water in the Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt in the future, due to climate change and expiration of the Columbia River Treaty.  It makes no sense to be making additional commitments of water to new uses at this time.

oTrojan Fish:  The fish benefit is illusory – Grand Coulee Dam can’t measure the incremental quantities that allegedly will be released to improve instream flows.

oSubsidies, subsidies, subsidies:  Who will pay to pump that water uphill to Odessa? 

oWater Quality Nightmare:  Tech Cominco, a zinc smelter in Trail, B.C. has put millions of tons of slag and toxic chemicals into Lake Roosevelt, covering riverbed, banks and beaches.  Lake Roosevelt Drawdown will further expose these pollutants – very bad idea.

The Department of Ecology is proposing to allocate new water rights from Lake Roosevelt.  This proposal contravenes the 2005 study and recommendations from the National Academies of Science.  The proposal will not, despite state pronouncements, provide any significant benefit to Columbia River fish.  The increment of water provided for instream flows is so small that it cannot be measured at Grand Coulee Dam (where it allegedly will be released). 

Columbia River management at Lake Roosevelt and Grand Could Dam will change in coming years due to climate change and expiration of the Columbia River Treaty.  (British Columbia residents are not happy with operation of the Canadian reservoirs on the Columbia River!)

Washington State should strive for flexibility.  But the state is achieving just the opposite by locking into a give-away of new water rights.  This approach will only exacerbate eastern Washington water supply problems in the future.  What is needed is aggressive, mandatory water conservation, appropriate water pricing (including elimination of water and energy subsidies), and a re-focusing on sustainable agriculture in eastern Washington.

As part of the plan, the state is now allocating $5 million per year to the Spokane and Colville Tribes.  These payments should come with no strings attached as compensation for the terrible damage done to the Tribes when Grand Coulee floodgates closed in 1940 -- destroying Upper Columbia salmon runs, flooding tribal communities, inundating cultural resources, and drowning Kettle Falls – the Celilo of the Upper Columbia River.  Washington State payments to the Tribes should be based on the equities – not continuing damage to eastern Washington waters and wildlife

NEW!

News Release

Friday, October 24, 2008

CELP and Columbia Riverkeeper appeal Lake Roosevelt Drawdown

Appeal challenges U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Washington State over Columbia River future

Spokane - Today the Center for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP) and Columbia Riverkeeper announced their appeal of two water right decisions by the Washington Department of Ecology authorizing the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to divert water from Lake Roosevelt for new irrigation and other uses.

“These water rights will cost regional ratepayers millions of dollars in subsidies,” said Patrick Williams, staff attorney with CELP.  “There has been absolutely no analysis of the cost.”

The Lake Roosevelt drawdown is the latest salvo in a 50-year effort by the Bureau and Washington State to expand irrigation to the 1-million acre Columbia Basin Project, the nation's largest federal reclamation project.  It was authorized by Congress during the Great Depression and best known for Grand Coulee Dam.  Previous efforts to expand irrigation failed in 1946 when farmers in the eastern part of the CBP voted against receiving "Project" water.  Instead, farmers drilled thousands of illegal "cascading" wells, and mined the Odessa Aquifer. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Bureau halted plans to expand water to the Odessa Subarea after economists and a Government Accountability Office investigation warned of the high costs to taxpayers and ratepayers.

The Lake Roosevelt drawdown is also intended to provide water for municipalities, industries, supplement junior water rights, and augment instream flows in the Columbia River. Washington State claims a fish benefit. However the Department of Ecology's own analysis acknowledges that the amount of water released for fish will be imperceptible.

“Washington State’s claim of a fish benefit is not backed up by the science,” said Lauren Goldberg, Conservation Director for Columbia Riverkeeper.  “Every dollar spent by Bonneville Power Administration for fisheries mitigation – every drop of water spilled for salmon – is scrutinized and grudgingly given.  Here we have a multi-million dollar subsidy and no one is saying a word.”

In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report on Columbia River water management, specifically recommending that water agencies avoid issuing new permanent water rights from the River in order to maintain flexibility to manage water flows for endangered salmon. Both Washington state and the Bureau have ignored the NAS recommendations.

“In its quest for more water, Ecology can’t ignore the times we live in," said Goldberg. "Climate change is a reality for the Columbia basin. Our state and federal managers must step up to the plate and deal with the how climate change will impact water availability in the Columbia basin.  Unfortunately, the current environmental analysis falls short of grappling with this reality."