Working On Water

Working On Water

Working On Water. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

Representative's Dan Newhouse and Dave Reichert have introduced legislation to authorize a key phase of the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan, an initiative to better accommodate the water needs of the agricultural community, conservationists, residents, and other stakeholders in the Yakima River Basin region.

NEWHOUSE: As you know this is long anticipated for the Yakima Basin certainly because of drought and water storage as such a critical issue for Central Washington especially. The Yakima Basin - all of our ag communities have seen and felt the impact of water shortages, drought conditions as our precious resource of water becomes increasingly scarce.

Newhouse says after years of tough negotiations, the Yakima River Basin Plan offers a solution that will give water users more certainty, while also recognizing the concerns of conservationists and the various stakeholders in the Yakima Basin.

NEWSHOUSE: With this legislation we hope to improve water infrastructure, water storage, water conservation as well as the reliability for irrigation and other out of stream uses. The thing that I'm most proud about is this truly is a national model. We have shown others how we can work in a collaborative way when we plan water infrastructure. The Yakima Basin plan truly does meet human and environmental needs and it updates current water supply infrastructure.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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