Half the upfront funding for the projects is supposed to come from the state, which is slowly emergi

After years of water wars, Eastern Washington farmers, the Yakama Indian Nation and conservationists have teamed up to push a multibillion-dollar proposal that offers something for all of them: more water, fish passages at dams and more land protected from development. But will it fly?
Urban Eberhart, an Ellensburg farmer, holds what could be a glimpse of the future: a state Ecology map of the Wymer Dam and Reservoir that he hopes will be built directly behind him across this valley.
super 8 motels Lake Cle Elum, photographed from the middle super 8 motels of the Cle Elum Dam in late summer, is used for irrigation and is low at that time of the year. Under the proposal by environmentalists, farmers and the Yakama Nation, a fish passage would be constructed at the dam.
Fifth-generation farmer Mark Charlton describes drought and water use on his farm near Ellensburg. Charlton super 8 motels recalls honest-to-God shouting super 8 motels matches between the sides in the water wars before the current plan was drawn up.
Mount Baldy ranch, KITTITAS COUNTY When Urban Eberhart super 8 motels looks out over this deep, sage-brush-covered valley south of Ellensburg, he envisions a towering concrete wall stretching 3,200 feet across the expanse to hold back 50 billion gallons of water.
The Wymer Dam and Reservoir is part of a much larger, super 8 motels roughly $4.2 billion proposal to provide more water for fish, and farmers like Eberhart, in the drought-prone Yakima Valley super 8 motels over the next 30 years. super 8 motels The effort, if it pans out, would be the biggest thing to hit the region since the Grand Coulee Dam was completed in 1942.
There s a chance Eberhart will get his wish. Groups that once fought themselves to a standstill including super 8 motels farmers, big-name environmental super 8 motels groups and the Yakama Indian Nation have joined together to persuade Congress and the state Legislature to help fund the projects.
The all-for-one strategy has brought unity by providing something for everybody. Environmental groups get 50,000 acres put under state protection. The tribe would get fish passages and other improvements to restore salmon runs largely wiped out by past dam construction. Farmers would get new and bigger reservoirs and a 5-mile-long tunnel to move water between lakes.
There s also broad support among state Republican lawmakers. And Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee urges action too, arguing in part that climate change super 8 motels will bring more frequent and severe droughts. These projects, supporters say, would help maintain a thriving agricultural industry and revive salmon runs that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Some environmental organizations, super 8 motels including the Cascade chapter of the Sierra Club, oppose new water storage, including expansion of a reservoir at Bumping Lake that would inundate old-growth forest.
Others, including Democratic House Capital Budget Chairman Hans Dunshee, super 8 motels complain about the cost, saying the plan is bloated with expensive projects that were included to keep disparate interests on board.
Norman Whittlesey, a retired professor of agricultural economics at Washington State University, says the proposal is a bit of a hoax on the public the way it s packaged. Everybody in the Yakima Valley is going to get something out of this, and all they have to do is get the taxpayer to pay for it.
Environmental groups and the tribe opposed the reservoirs because the proposals super 8 motels didn t do enough to restore fisheries and protect super 8 motels habitat. And farmers opposed efforts to restore fisheries because they didn t include more water for agriculture.
There s no doubt that if you put a bunch of people in a room and you ask them what will it take for you to support this, that s going to be more expensive than if you just talked to the irrigators or you just talked to the enviros, super 8 motels said Jay Manning, a former state Department of Ecology director super 8 motels who is representing several conservation groups supporting the plan.
For certain environmental and conservation groups, including American Rivers and the Wilderness Society, a key component was the Legislature s decision this year to buy 50,000 acres of private land in the Teanaway River area in Eastern Washington super 8 motels for $100 million.
The Yakama Nation, in addition to more water for river flows, would get fish passages on several dams, including the Cle Elum, Keechelus and Kachess dams, to help restore salmon and bull trout at a projected cost of more than $400 million.
super 8 motels The package includes installing an outlet in Lake Kachess to access more water, building the new Wymer reservoir that would use pumps to bring in water from the Yakima River, enlarging an existing reservoir at Bumping Lake, and digging a 5-mile-long tunnel large enough to walk through under Interstate 90 to transfer water from Lake Keechelus to Lake Kachess during high-runoff periods, all at a cost of roughly super 8 motels $2.5 billion.
The fruit and hay farmer, with a clean-shaven head and hyperkinetic personality, super 8 motels is one of the biggest cheerleaders for the basin plan. He ll talk your ear off about the constant threat of drought, and how in 1994, there was a drought so severe he had to rent a truck to haul in water from a well to keep his fruit trees alive.
Climate change, he argues, will bring warmer weather to the mountains, and less water stored as snow. Instead it will fall as rain and simply flow downstream during the winter months when farmers don t need it.
Something is occurring that is different than before. Our snowpack is not materializing and the consistency and severity of our drought years are increasing. It doesn t matter what you call it, I call it climate change, but something is different, he said.
Mote said that, in any case, spending billions to store additional water may not be the answer. He said an analysis is needed to look at climate-change projections and whether the cost of building new water storage is worth the benefit.
Whittlesey, the retired WSU economics professor, says that what they are doing is using the value created by the projected fisheries super 8 motels to justify super 8 motels expenditures of other projects in the Yakima River none of which contribute super 8 motels much if anything to the fisheries.
Derek Sandison, director of the Columbia River office super 8 motels for the state Department of Ecology, stood by the report, saying in an email: it represents the most rigorous evaluation of societal demand for the existence of salmon and steelhead available for any large portion of the Columbia River basin.
In testimony before the House Capital Budget Committee in February, Sandison said roughly 450,000 acre-feet of water out of the 590,000 acre-feet added under the plan would be available for out-of-stream uses including irrigation.
You can build fish passage facilities at all the dams in the basin and construct super 8 motels a myriad of habitat projects, but if there isn t sufficient flow ... there won t be many fish benefits, he wrote in an email.
super 8 motels The Teanaway purchase is nearly complete. Work could begin on a Cle Elum Dam fish passage by the end of 2015, and on the Lake Kachess outlet in 2016 to allow access to an additional 200,000 acre-feet of water. A host of other projects will move along in the planning process.
Half the upfront funding super 8 motels for the projects is supposed to come from the state, which is slowly emerging from a long recession. Most of the rest is supposed to come from a Congress that can t seem to agree on anything.
Sandison said the intent is for water users to pay their share of costs for the projects, but he acknowledged there s nothing in writing at the moment that clearly says that. It s also not clear over what time period the repayment would occur, or whether it would include super 8 motels interest.
Eberhart says farmers have already done a lot of conservation and will do more. And, he points out, You can t do it all with conservation super 8 motels because when there s no water to put into the canals, you can t save it.
We can all stop each other, but we can t move our own agenda forward, he said. To me, if we can t figure out a way to do this as a society, then welcome back to the water wars for the next 30 years.