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Options Abound in Study for Replacing LSRD Water Supply by K.C. Mehaffey NW Fishletter, July 1, 2024

A new study that will analyze a range of alternatives for replacing the water supply now provided by the four lower Snake River dams to irrigators, municipalities and industrial users will look at all water sources, including Lake Roosevelt, the water stored by Grand Coulee Dam.

It could also be a precursor to a new or supplemental environmental impact statement on breaching the four lower Snake River dams, officials said.

The study is a joint effort by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service will help review the study. BuRec committed to the study through a Dec. 14 temporary litigation settlement that paused a lawsuit over Columbia River System Operations.

Roland Springer, BuRec's deputy regional director for the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region, said the commitment includes $4.2 million in funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's Aquatic Ecosystems Restoration Program.

Additionally, the Washington Legislature gave Ecology $250,000 to study water supply replacement and will provide another $250,000 in 2025 if additional data is needed, Tom Tebb, director of Ecology's Office of Columbia River, said at the meeting.

The agencies hired a consultant -- the Jacobs Engineering Group -- which is working with several other consultants who specialize in specific areas, said Ron Fehringer, project manager for the firm. Consultants are currently gathering input from Native American tribes and the public. In July, they will be conducting site visits and interviewing water users that would be affected by breaching the dams.

"Nothing is predetermined at this point. Nothing's been left off the table or is guaranteed on the table -- either one," Fehringer told attendees of a June 25 public meeting.

He said groundwater availability -- and the extent that groundwater could be used to replace the water now available because of the dams -- will be part of the analysis.

Consultants are already analyzing the current water supply with the four lower Snake River dams in place. They are examining how supply would be affected if the dams are breached and also under different climate change scenarios. Fehringer said they'll then come up with potential solutions for replacing the water supply along with potential issues with new water sources, and will look at benefits and disadvantages of each potential solution.

They'll also consider numerous completed reports and studies related to lower Snake River dam removal, including the 2020 CRSO EIS, a dam replacement overview completed for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force's reports on restoring salmon and steelhead.

The prior studies, along with the water supply analyses and input from water users, will be used as a starting point for coming up with a range of alternatives on how the water supply could be replaced, Fehringer said.

A draft of the new study is expected for public review in December, with the goal of completing a final report by mid-2025. It will be reviewed by experts within the consulting team and also peer reviewed.

The study will not cover the replacement needs for energy or transportation if the dams are breached.

Tebb and Fehringer said the study area is still being defined, but it will include between 50,000 and 93,000 acres of irrigated lands along with potentially dozens of municipal and industrial water users. Springer added that the study area will be partly defined by searching state records for Snake River water right holders in Washington and Idaho.

Darryll Olsen, board representative for the Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association, says he's seen a proposal of the alternatives and it includes a plan rejected more than 10 years ago to transport water to southeastern Washington from Lake Roosevelt by canal. A 2013 record of decision for the Odessa Subarea Special Study Final Environmental Impact Statement describes the alternative, which would divert about 273,000 acre-feet of water from the Columbia River through 78.4 miles of new canal, including a 44.8-mile East High Canal and a 26.8-mile Black Rock Branch Canal.

"Building the East High Canal for water delivery to the [lower Snake River] is political, technical, and economic nonsense. Expect a high level of criticism," Olsen said in an emailed comment to the meeting organizers.

He told NW Fishletter that pursuing the East High Canal at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion is a waste of the consultant's time and the government's money. "The best solution is what we came up with -- just give the irrigators the $750 million and walk away. Let them figure out how to [replace water supply]."

Fehringer said that Olsen's analysis on costs of replacing irrigation if the dams are removed is among the documents that will be thoroughly reviewed and considered.

Prepared by CSRIA and the Franklin Conservation District for the Ecology's Office of Columbia River in January, the analysis looks at irrigation sector economic impacts of dam breaching. The study concludes that irrigators in the lower Snake and Columbia rivers would need between $578 million and $759 million to compensate for losses if the four lower Snake River dams were breached. The compensation would address modification of pumping stations and wells, lost crops, and the risk of lost property values.

Olsen also said he believes this new study will lead to a new or supplemental EIS focusing solely on breaching the four lower Snake River dams.

Springer addressed his comment during the meeting, explaining that one of the federal commitments in the litigation stay agreement is that agencies will review environmental compliance and will supplement or complete other compliance documents if needed. "So that's something the agencies are reviewing," he said. "[W]e are reviewing what environmental compliance needs exist right now based on -- I will say -- changes since 2020, but then there could be additional environmental compliance needs later on if we get to feasibility studies or other types of efforts that result from some of this early work," he said.

Related Sites:
Biden-Harris Administration Releases Report Highlighting Historic and Ongoing Negative Impacts of Federal Columbia River Dams on Tribal Communities Department of Interior, 6/18/24
United States Government’s Analysis of the Impacts of Federal Dams on Columbia Basin Tribes Restores the Rule of Law and Supports Immediate Action to Prevent Salmon Extinction Nez Perce Tribe, 6/18/24
Northwest RiverPartners on establishment of Columbia River Task Force, report from Interior Department Northwest RiverPartners, 6/18/24