07/24/06 Implementing Col. River legislation

Washington Ag July 24, 2006 Water policy leaders and stakeholders gathered in the Tri-Cities last week to assess the progress in implementing the Columbia River Management Act, legislation that was adopted earlier this year aimed at ending decades old battles over getting more water from the river for agriculture, cities and industry. Keynote speaker at the event was Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning. A one-million acre storage facility is part of the plan and Ecology has trimmed the list of locations along the Columbia for that to five. Manning says once there are only two or three candidates an environmental assessment will be done. An implementation team has also been created to determine how conservation projects will be evaluated and prioritized for funding with a draft plan expected in October. The U.S. Senate may vote early this week on the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, S. 3711, and the Washington Association of Wheat Growers is urging Senators Murray and Cantwell to support the bill, which would open up more of the Gulf to natural gas drilling. Increasing natural gas supplies could help agricultural producers with their fertilizer costs which have increased in recent years due to increasing natural gas demand, and which skyrocketed last year after devastating hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm Bob Hoff.