YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — The government has released proposals for expanding one of the nation’s largest federal irrigation projects.
Congress authorized Eastern Washington’s Columbia Basin Project in 1943 to irrigate more than 1 million arid acres. Only about 671,000 acres have been developed, and the state issued groundwater permits to undeveloped areas as a temporary measure to provide water.
However, groundwater levels have been declining in that area around Odessa, about 60 miles west of Spokane.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation and Washington state Department of Ecology pledged to study ways to replace their water supply. The environmental impact statement released Tuesday looks at alternatives to drawing down Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt and drawing water from a new reservoir called Rocky Coulee.
