Water Transfers in the West Efficiency, Equity, and the Environment (1992) / Chapter Skim
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8 The Yakima Basin in Washington: Will Transfers Occur Without Judicial or Legislative Pressures?
8 The Yakima Basin in Washington: Will Transfers Occur Without Judicial or Legislative Pressures?
Pages 182-193
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From page 182... ...
The Yakima River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, annually producing an average of about 3.4 million acre-feet (4.2 million megaliters (ML)
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From page 183... ...
The principal agricultural products were 135,000 acres of forage crops, 46,000 acres of grairls, 95,000 acres of fruits, 27,000 acres of vegetables, and 38,000 acres of field crops. Historically, Yakima River basin streams sustained six large anadromous fish runs.
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From page 184... ...
The decrease has been caused by the cumulative impacts of human activities, including commercial and recreational fish harvest, construction and operation of Columbia River main stem dams, construction and operation of Yakima basin water storage reservoirs and irrigation water delivery systems, diversion of water from the Yakima basin streams, bypasses for hydroelectric power production, and general habitat degradation. Restoration of the Yakima basin will not be easy.
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From page 185... ...
In 1977, the driest year experienced in the basin in modern memory, conflicts between the Yakima Nation and irrigators led to an effort to reopen a water rights decree (Kittitas Reclamation District et al.
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From page 186... ...
In a partial summary judgment issued on July 17, 1990, the presiding judge in Acquavella ruled that the Yakima Nation's water rights "thieve been fulfilled and limited by a combination of federal reserved and Washington state law water rights," and thereby denied the tribe's claims to additional diversionary rights. The court further found with regard to the Yakima Nation's instream flow claims that `'~t~he reserved treaty rights shall be no more than those quantities of water necessary for the maintenance of fish and aquatic life in the Yakima River and its tributaries as and to the extent that such fish and aquatic life exist at this time and no more." A motion for reconsideration filed by the United States was granted, and on November 29, 1990, the court entered an amended partial summary judgment as final judgment.
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From page 187... ...
for off-site enhancement of anadromous fish habitat and construction of some fish passage facilities at existing diversion dams and fish hatcheries. More than $55 million worth of such facilities have been constructed with BPA funding as part of Phase I of the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project.
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From page 188... ...
In another attempt to enhance the fishery through water management, the diversion of water to and the operation of federal facilities at the Roza and Chandler power plants were voluntarily subordinated to instream flow requirements by the Bureau of Reclamation starting in 1990 to ease the stress on anadromous fish during low-flow periods. When the flow in the river is less than the amount desired
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From page 189... ...
THIRD PARTY IMPACTS Large numbers of formal transfers of water and water rights are not currently being proposed in the Yakima River basin. Rather, considerable effort is being made to increase water use efficiency, particularly for irrigation, as a means of freeing up water to reestablish instream flows.
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From page 190... ...
There is also circumstantial evidence that enhancements to the anadromous fish runs can be achieved through actions within the Yakima basin independent of any major improvements in fish passage problems in the main stem of the Columbia River. After record low numbers of returning fish in the 1970s, increases were observed up to 1986.
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From page 191... ...
2. Agricultural water that might be transferred to state-held "water rights trust" to enhance anadromous fisheries.
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From page 192... ...
The public trust doctrine has been adopted as part of the state's water law by courts in California, Idaho, and North Dakota, but what role it will play in reallocation remains uncertain. One method to reallocate water may be for federal and/or state authorities to buy out marginal agricultural lands and retire the associated water rights for dedication to instream uses.
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From page 193... ...
In addition, the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project car be offered as a viable example of comprehensive river basin planning aimed toward more efficient management of existing water supplies. However, it is not likely to succeed in meeting the multiple use goals within the basin without substantial investments in water conservation and new storage, as well as intensive management on a basinwide scale by the Bureau of Reclamation.
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