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Lake Roosevelt. In the decision to lower reservoir levels, the Bureau failed to consider the human and environmental effects of lowering water levels and exposing 100 million tons of toxic slag deposited on the bed and banks of Lake Roosevelt by a zinc smelter located in Trail, B.C., just north of the U.S.-Canada border.  Photo: Rachael Paschal Osborn

Dryland wheat farmer Randy Jones challenges Washington State over water policies. Industrial feedlots want to use a loophole in water law, threatening fragile aquifers and existing water users statewide. For the plight of the Five Corners Family Farmers, click here.

Dryland wheat farming in eastern Washington.  Aquifers here are fragile - water is scarce.  Industrial feedlot proponents want to use massive amounts of water from theses nonrecharable aquifers.

On April 9 The New York Times published two articles describing CELP's water work:  the stockwater exemption that allows unlimited and unregulated use of water for factory farms -- and the impact of this law on the lives of family farmers in eastern Washington.  The Times also covered the Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to not issue a final decision on Black Rock Dam in the Yakima Basin -- thus keeping the dam proposal alive for future consideration despite its deadly flaws, losing economics (13 cents on the dollar) and the expenditure of $18 million by the Bureau and the State of Washington to arrive at these conclusions.   Do bad water projects ever die?

Read these articles:

    * Industrial farms could leave eastern Washington with dry wells.  (New York Times / Greenwire)

    * Washington's Yakima Basin storage project dies -- or does it?  (New York Times / Greenwire)

Bureau of Reclamation fails to disclose costs and impacts of irrigation proposal

' Numbers don't add up '

Conservationists ask Sec. Salazar to withdraw $50 million Weber Siphon project as not "shovel ready"

On May 4 the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CELP), Columbia Riverkeeper (CRK), and Sierra Club sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking him to withdraw stimulus funding for the Weber Siphon project in eastern Washington.  The $50 million project would allow the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) to move water under Interstate 90, significantly increasing water withdrawals from the Columbia River to expand irrigated agriculture in eastern Washington.

"The numbers just don't add up," said Brett VandenHeuvel, director of Columbia Riverkeeper.  "The Bureau says they want to deliver 181 cfs of water, but proposes to build a $50 million pipe big enough to carry ten times that.  Nowhere in the stimulus announcement does the Bureau disclose that this project will obligate the taxpayer to this multi-billion dollar water project."

According to the Bureau’s fact sheet accompanying Sec. Salazar's announcement, the Weber Siphon expansion will eliminate a bottleneck in the East Low Canal and provide 30,000 acre-feet of water to 10,000 acres of land within the designated boundaries, but outside the current service area, of the Columbia Basin Project.   The existing water pipe under I-90 carries 1700 cubic feet per second (cfs).  To provide water to 10,000 acres, only 181 cfs needs to be added.  But the Bureau's proposed Weber Siphon Project would increase water flow by 1,950 cfs (to a total of 3,650 cfs).  If the siphon is built, the additional amount of water in the East Low Canal would serve nearly ten times the acreage the Bureau is disclosing to the public.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), passed in February, prohibits the Bureau of Reclamation from creating  "budgetary obligations in future fiscal years."  The Bureau's Odessa Subarea Special Study estimates that it will cost between $1.2 and $ 4.4 billion to bring Columbia River water to the Odessa Subarea via the Weber Siphon.  The Bureau by building the Weber Siphon appears to obligate the federal government to major expenditures in future years to expand irrigated agriculture on the Columbia Plateau.

In addition, the Bureau has not completed environmental analysis for either of the two irrigation proposals, as required by the ARRA.

"The Weber Siphon project is not 'shovel ready,'" said Rachael Paschal Osborn, director of CELP and public interest water lawyer. "The Bureau has not completed its environmental and economic analysis, and is jumping the gun."

The Obama Administration has identified that it wants only "shovel ready" projects. A project is only shovel ready if analysis under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) is complete.  On April 15 Secretary Salazar issued his decision on funding the Weber Siphon.  But three NEPA processes relating to the siphon are still ongoing:

•On the day of the Salazar announcement, the public was still commenting on the Bureau's draft Environmental Assessment for the Lake Roosevelt drawdown - to pump river water uphill and eventually through the Weber Siphon.

•The Bureau is also conducting a more extensive environmental impact statement, called the Odessa Subarea Special Study, NEPA analysis not expected to be completed until sometime in 2010.

•Last December, CELP and CRK filed suit in federal district court because of the Bureau's failure to take public input and prepare an environmental analysis as required by federal law. The organizations contend the Bureau failed to analyze impacts to the Columbia River, including energy costs, taxpayer subsidies, damage to salmon runs, public health risks from exposing toxic sediments in Lake Roosevelt, and climate change limiting future river flow.

Columbia River flows are the source of controversy.  Inadequate flows threaten the survival of endangered salmon runs.  Climate change is aggravating river flow problems.  In 2004 the National Academies of Science cautioned against taking more water from the Columbia River.  Seven months later, the Bureau disregarded the scientists' recommendations and entered into a memorandum of agreement with Washington State and irrigation districts to aggressively pursue options to take more water from the Columbia River.

Congress has yet to approve a new commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.  The current acting Commissioner is Bill McDonald, and served during Bush Administration as the Bureau's Director for the Pacific Northwest Region.  Said Osborn, "Bush-era bureaucrats are still driving Columbia River decisions.  The decision to fund the Weber Siphon prejudges that water is available from the Columbia River - water isn't available, and climate change will make matters worse."

Links:

•Letter to Interior Sec. Salazar

•AP story on the Salazar announcement

Additional background links

•Comments on Scoping, Odessa Subarea Special Study

•Complaint filed in federal court regarding Bureau's failure to conduct NEPA

•Comments on Bureau's Environmental Analysis for the Lake FDR drawdown

•Resource Economists Norman Whittlesey and Walter Butcher:  comments on Bureau's EA for Lake FDR drawdown

•National Academies of Science:  Managing the Columbia River: Instream Flows, Water Withdrawals, and Salmon Survival

•Rachael Paschal Osborn:  Odessa Aquifers:  Crisis in Sustainability

Historic Settlement for

Spokane Falls !!!

Rachael Paschal Osborn discusses water settlement at Spokane Falls

CELP and Sierra Club - partnering with the U. of W. Berman Environmental Law Clinic - on May 5 announced a settlement of our appeal that will restore water to Spokane Falls for the first time in nearly a century. 

The national significance: the legal basis for this appeal is the federal Clean Water Act that protects not just water quality, but also protects water quantity flowing in rivers (and waterfalls).

Key to the settlement was Avista's agreement to restore the bed of Spokane Falls, damaged by construction of mills and sewers.  CELP and Sierra Club will partner with Avista during the next several years to restore this beautiful waterfalls.

Click here for articles:

New deal means Spokane Falls will roar

Spokane Falls will flow full time

Spokane Falls to flow full-time,

thanks to Berman Environmental Law Clinic

No water at Spokane Falls - Labor Day weekend. Never again. The settlement reached between CELP, Sierra Club, and Avista means that de-watering Spokane Falls will end.

Spokane Falls at high flow -- in the heart of Spokane.

Expo '74.  5 million people from all over the world came to Spokane Falls for the first world's fair with an environmental message.