More On Wanapum Dam Issue

Recently a crack was discovered in the Wanapum Dam and it has become a major concern for the local PUD, irrigators and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Bruce Grimm, Executive Director of the Washington State Horticultural Association tells growers they need to get proactive.

GRIMM: Growers need to be out there looking at their intake points to see if they are in water/out of water. The PUD is going to do a test next weekend where they maintain river flows at the 609 (foot) level and allow people to start their pumps and see how they're operating. There needs to be, depending on the size of the intake, a certain level of water over the top and again, there are people who are expert in that that growers need to be contacting and to get out there and have a look, assess their situation and figure out what needs to be done.

He says there may be some well users on the edge of the reservoir who may very well be impacted as well.

GRIMM: And of course there are people who have ponds that are being filled and they pump out of those ponds, and those ponds are now not receiving water so they have issues in terms of how you fill the pond that you are pumping out of. If you just set up another pump and pump into the pond, it's going to run right back out so you may have to line that pond on a temporary basis.

He says the Governor's office has gotten involved in this.

GRIMM: We had a conference call last week with them, we had one this morning, we'll have another one on Tuesday. They're accessing wether an emergency declaration will be of some assistance perhaps in releasing some funds because that was a question people had, who's going to pay for this.

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