Water projects in Washington could get Feds to back off

By DAVID LESTER

TACOMA, Wash., Oct. 17, 2000 (Yakima Herald-Republic)—Requests for state and federal funding to complete some Yakima River water projects could protect the basin from regulatory action over endangered species concerns, an envoy for Gov. Gary Locke said recently.

Tacoma attorney Jim Waldo said the proposals he plans to recommend to Locke could improve water quality and management and enhance fish, important elements in recovery of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. Yakima basin steelhead and bull trout are on the threatened list.

Locke says he will ask state lawmakers in January to fund some basin water projects.

Waldo was at the Yakima Center to meet with irrigators and representatives of cities, counties, the Yakama Nation and state and federal agencies. He said the projects he'll recommend could convince the National Marine Fisheries Service that the basin is solving its own endangered species problems.

"Everyone here — the Yakama Nation, local governments, citizens and the state — have an interest in having a program we can show the National Marine Fisheries Service there is no reason for them to come in here and mess around in this basin," Waldo said.

The fisheries service is responsible for protecting steelhead, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must protect bull trout.

Locke appointed Waldo this summer to try to encourage agencies and people who have an interest in the basin's water to agree on what projects should be completed. Progress has been hard to come by because of disagreements among the various groups.

The items Waldo presented Monday aren't new. Most have been suggested before and are in various stages of review by local, state or federal agencies.

The projects include fish screens on small irrigation diversions, reducing water pollution, building municipal wastewater projects, improving fish habitat and switching the Kennewick Irrigation District diversion to the Columbia River to improve water conditions in the lower Yakima River.

Also on the list is money to continue studies of two possible reservoirs — the Pine Hollow site in the Ahtanum area west of Yakima and the Washout Canyon reservoir in the Roza Irrigation District, north of Sunnyside.

Waldo's list could be amended in a public comment period scheduled during November before Locke selects those he will ask the Legislature to fund. The projects on the list exceed $16 million. The figure includes $2.5 million in state funds toward the $50 million the Kennewick Irrigation District would need to move its diversion from the Yakima River to the Columbia River. Congress has passed an authorization bill to study the district's plan.

Not everyone is happy with the way Waldo is proceeding.

Benton County Commissioner Max Benitz told Waldo the plan ignores local watershed planning and excludes the citizens of Yakima, Benton and Kittitas counties.

"For me to have input in this, it is prudent that the people I represent have an opportunity for discussion," Benitz said.

Benitz said he feels like he is being backed into a corner and faced with deciding whether to support something that is outside the state's watershed planning law.

Waldo said all basin interests would have to back the plan for it to have any chance to succeed.

"If the people of the Yakima Valley say this list isn't worth the paper it's printed on, then nothing will happen," he said.

Jim Trull, manager of the Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District, said he believes the plan is "right on target."

Trull said basin interests have been criticized for spending too much time studying and not acting to solve water problems.

"This is what some of us have been pushing for a long time," Trull said.

Reporter David Lester can be reached by phone at 577-7674, or by e-mail at mailto:[email protected]