12/22/06 WSPC updates congress on water issues

Farm and Ranch December 22, 2006 Before this past session of the U.S. Congress concluded the Washington State Potato Commission visited Washington D.C. and met with members of the state's delegation to talk about water. Chris Voigt, Potato Commission Executive Director, explains Voigt: "And the intent was really to give them an update on a piece of state legislation, the Columbia River Management bill where we are dedicating 200 million dollars to additional water storage in the state. We had some great speakers. We had the governor's office, Department of Ecology there. We had food processors. We had local interests represented. The Bureau of Reclamation. All talking about the need for additional water storage in Washington State with particular attention at this point to the Odessa sub area, the aquifer that is going dry." Voigt says they had three requests for the Washington delegation. Voigt: "One is to continue funding the Odessa special studies so that we have identified the best alternatives to get water out to them. Second we asked for, it's called off channel storage and funding for that. We need authorization from congress and then also the funding to continue that study. And then also the supplemental feed route to Potholes Reservoir where that would free up additional capacity in the East-Low Canal to serve Odessa." That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.