11/5/08 Appealing Water Rights

Appealing Water Rights. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The Washington Department of Ecology issued final decisions back in September that pave the way for more water to be made available to cities and industry along the Columbia River and replace groundwater currently pumped from the Odessa Subarea aquifer according to Joye Redfield-Wilder. REDFIELD-WILDER: The Bureau of Reclamation has received some permits from the agency that taps into storage behind Lake Roosevelt. It's allowing us to be able to eventually provide water to the Odessa area and also perhaps help a 100 cities along the Columbia River that are facing water shortages. The decision authorized the release of 82,500 acre-feet of water to the Columbia River. Of that amount, 27,500 acre-feet is permanently set aside in support of stream flows. That decision has been met with some opposition. REDFIELD-WILDER: Some of the concerns raised were how did we address climate change? And that is something we did an environmental impact statement on our decision to release this additional water from Lake Roosevelt and climate is important. The Department of Ecology plan on proceeding with plans. REDFIELD-WILDER: We just have to go through the appeal process. The pollution control hearings board will hear the arguments and decide and that just depends on how long the appeals proceed but we're proceeding with our decision in the meantime to be ready once a final decision is made. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.