Columbia River 2004 MOU
Reclamation, Dept. of Ecology, Project Irrigation Districts

Purpose

• Address unmet needs of the Columbia Basin Project
• Help DOE's goal of meeting needs of growing communities along the
  Columbia River in a way that reduces risk to fish

Major Elements

•    Main Stem Storage
•    Odessa Groundwater Management Subarea Aquifer Issues
•    Potholes Reservoir Operations
•    Main Stem Drought Relief
•    Municipal and Industrial Water Supply
•    Water from Canada
•    Near Term Water Availability

 Columbia River Basin Water Management (Development) Act 2006

• Ecology directed to aggressively pursue development of new water supplies for both instream and out-of-stream uses
• Ecology's Office of Columbia River (OCR) meets mandate:
  • 39 water supply development projects underway
  • 144,000 acre-feet of water supply developed
  • 630,000 acre-feet of water supply under near term development
  • Millions of acre-feet in early stages of long term development

 Alternatives to Groundwater for Odessa

• Declining aquifers in the Odessa Subarea (pump depths exceeding 2,000 feet)  
• Loss of irrigation water could cost the local economy:
  •  $1.6 billion a year in lost revenue
  •  Over 3600 jobs

 Four-Pronged Approach to Solving Odessa Problem

• Supplemental Feed Route and Other Infrastructure Upgrades
• Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases
• Coordinated Conservation Plan
• Odessa Subarea Special Study
  • Banks Lake Re-Operation
  • Rocky Coulee Dam & Reservoir

Potholes Supplemental Feed Route

Potholes Supplemental Feed Route: Increase Conveyance Capacity

• Completed Phase 1 of (Frenchman Hills Wasteway) with Reclamation
• Implementing Phase 2 of Feed Route (Crab Creek)
• When completed, will create 150,000 acre-feet of additional East Low Canal capacity.

Lake Roosevelt Storage Release

·    30,000 Acre-Feet of Water for Odessa Subarea

• First large block of surface water for ground water replacement
• Weber Siphon will allow delivery of 21,000 acre-feet to southern portion of Odessa Subarea

Weber Siphon

OCR and US Bureau of Reclamation secured $50 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009)  funding to build a second siphon at the Weber Siphon Complex. The siphon eliminates water delivery bottleneck at I-90 near Moses Lake, allowing OCR to convey water from Lake Roosevelt releases to southern portion of Odessa Subarea

Coordinated Conservation Plan

    OCR provides funding to Columbia Basin Irrigation Districts

• Convert open conveyance systems to pipe
• Use water savings to replace groundwater in the Odessa Subarea
• 18,267 acre-feet of water savings 2009-2012

 Odessa Special Study Project

• Record of Decision signed in April 2013 by Reclmation Regional Director Lorri Lee
• Additional water supplies and expanded conveyance systems to replace groundwater for 70,000 acres of irrigated croplands 

Odessa Subarea Special Study Preferred Alternative Draft Map
   Click here to view

     < Back