February 2020 - 21

IRRIGATION & WATER MANAGEMENT
Yakama and Lummi nations.
Growers have tried in the past for an
Endangered Species Act exemption, but
that's increasingly unlikely, Olsen said.
" Judge Michael Simon is going to break
something, " he said.
The governor's impact statement will
examine the environmental effects of
removing the dams.
" In their environmental impact
statement, they're trying to demonstrate
there would be severe impacts if you
did the dam breaching, " Olsen said.
" And they are correct, there would be
substantial impacts to power, navigation,
irrigation, flat water recreation. "
A recent white paper produced by
the Columbia-Snake River Irrigators
Association, called " Risk Mitigation
Response Alternative, " looked at financial
risks associated with removing the dams.
In total, some 90,640 acres valued
at about $1.4 billion are in the river's
primary impact areas served by the
Upper McNary Pool and Ice Harbor Pool,
alone, according to the irrigators' white
paper. (It didn't examine in detail lands
served by the Lower McNary and John
Day pools, about 275,000 acres).
Many of the acres served by the
Lower McNary and John Day pools are
planted with vineyards and orchards.
Olsen said the fruit producers such as
FirstFruits Farms/Broetje Orchards,
Gordon Bros. Family Vineyards and
Hundreds of thousands of acres of high-value farmland are served by irrigation pools that
draw from the Columbia-Snake River.
Wines, and many others are situated
closely to the river system.
A major shift in the dams and water
supply would be expensive for irrigators
and potentially disruptive to agriculture.
" The breaching/drawdown action
would create 'distressed assets,' where the
assets' value in the market is diminished, "
according to the white paper. " The
distressed assets are created by the risks
associated with the uncertain costs of
modifying pump stations, the unknown
time frame for loss of operations, how
effective the future pumping operations
will be, and how the agricultural
production markets respond to
interruptions to site-specific supply. "
Olsen said the paper is meant to speak
directly to the environmental impact
statement. The white paper argues the
Bonneville Power Administration, which
operates the hydroelectric dams, and
Washington state, should compensate
irrigators on the Upper McNary Pool and
Ice Harbor Pool between $445 to $621
million for lost assets.
Ecological concerns will bring their
own demands to the negotiation table,
and some compromises will likely
be proposed. One option is for water
behind two dams farther upstream,
Granite and Little Goose, to be
gradually drawn down completely.
" It is an alternative that will be put
back on the table, " Olsen said of the
Granite and Little Goose proposal. He
said growers in Columbia-Snake River
Irrigators Association aren't excited
about such compromise and believe
an Endangered Species Act exemption
would be more appropriate. " We find it
just completely irrational that some of
the agencies and industry groups aren't
pushing as hard as we are for it. "
Negotiations continue in early 2020.
In December, Olsen said the white paper
had already brought some " favorable
response from some of the leadership
in the governor's office " as a realistic
approach to the issue.
" We put this out there because the
situation is real, " Olsen said. " We're
looking at this and saying, we need to
focus on we can do to mitigate (costs) for
the irrigators. "
The goal is to keep the water flowing
out to the fruit farms as smoothly as
possible. Nobody, not even the dambreaching
parties, want irrigation and
agriculture to stop in the region, he said.
" It's not a matter of abandoning the
ground, " Olsen said. " It just takes a lot of
money to deal with that. " VGN
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February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020