U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has introduced legislation to push forward a long-term plan to ease water shortages in the Yakima basin, one of the state’s hardest-hit regions during this summer’s drought.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has introduced legislation to push forward a long-term plan to ease water shortages in the Yakima basin, one of the state’s hardest-hit regions during this summer’s drought.
The bill provides federal authorization for the initial phase of the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan, a decades-long blueprint for the future that resulted from lengthy negotiations between the state and federal governments, irrigators, tribes, environmentalists and other interests.
The legislation includes sections to improve fish passage in the basin, expand water storage, help rebuild the Wapato Irrigation District and strengthen efforts to conserve water and restore habitat.
“We need new options when it comes to dealing with drought and water storage. The Yakima Basin project does just that,” Cantwell said in a statement to The Seattle Times that called the plan a “national model.”
Most Read Local Stories
The bill was submitted to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Cantwell serves as the ranking minority member. It does not provide federal funding, but the provisions in the bill must become law before money can be appropriated, according to a Cantwell aide.
The Yakima Basin currently relies on the snowpack for a substantial part of water storage that then feeds into basin streams and rivers as melt occurs. The snowpack is forecast to shrink in the decades ahead due to warming from climate change, and one part of the plan seeks to expand reservoir storage.
The specific water projects authorized in the bill include raising the Cle Elum Pool in a cost-sharing project with the state and approving a privately financed Lake Kachess drought-relief pumping plant.
Cantwell was expected to appear in Yakima Wednesday to talk about the bill.