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CapitalPress.com
Friday, February 12, 2021
Kittitas Reclamation District
The Kittitas Reclamation District in Central Washing-
ton is installing hundreds of miles of piping to help
conserve water from the Yakima River and deliver it
more efficiently to irrigation canals across the region.
Innovative effort
saves water, helps fish
By DAVE LEDER
For the Capital Press
Brian Walker/For the Capital Press
Wolf Lodge Bay on Coeur d’Alene Lake is a popular recreation area. The Kootenai-Shoshone Soil and Water Con-
servation District improved Wolf Lodge Creek, which empties into the bay, after a timber harvest, overgrazing,
dredging and riparian vegetation removal resulted in degradation of water quality and fish habitat in the area.
Projects help clean up
Coeur d’Alene Lake
COEUR
d’ALENE,
Idaho — Wolf Lodge Creek
is flowing the way it should
once again.
The Coeur d’Alene-based
Kootenai-Shoshone Soil and
Water Conservation District
recently completed a resto-
ration project for the stream
that drains a 40-square-mile
watershed into Wolf Lodge
Bay on the northeast side of
Coeur d’Alene Lake.
“The
project
re-es-
tablished proper channel
dimensions and streambank
conditions that reduce rates
of lateral channel migra-
tion and sedimentation,”
said Karla Freeman, district
administrator. “It also re-es-
tablished important habitat
for westslope cutthroat trout
and aquatic organisms.”
More than 80% of the
land in the watershed is
managed by the U.S. Forest
Service. Most of the remain-
ing land is privately owned.
The creek is an important
tributary to Coeur d’Alene
Lake.
A past timber harvest,
overgrazing, dredging and
riparian vegetation removal
resulted in degradation
of water quality and fish
habitat.
The project incorpo-
rated streambank stabili-
zation techniques on 2,000
square feet that provides sta-
bility and supports devel-
opment of mature riparian
vegetation.
Complex aquatic habitat
components such as depth,
velocity, substrate, cover
and pools that support pop-
ulations of wild trout and
other wildlife were created.
The project cost about
$400,000 and was funded
mostly with an Idaho
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality grant.
Other partners in the
project included: the Idaho
Soil and Water Conserva-
tion Commission, Natural
Resource Conservation Ser-
vice, Avista Utilities, North
Idaho Flycasters, Flycasters
International, TransCanada
and landowners.
Another district improve-
ment project is Mica Creek
south of Coeur d’Alene.
Mica Bay on Coeur
d’Alene Lake has a history
of excess nutrients due to
runoff, which causes dense
plant life and death of ani-
mal life due to the lack of
oxygen.
“The project is 80% com-
plete and will be finished
in the spring,” said Free-
man, adding that sediment
and nutrient reduction is the
goal.
Most of the eutrophica-
tion has occurred during the
past 20 years due to erod-
ing streambanks and nearby
farming practices.
Large timber harvests
occurred in the upper water-
shed in the late 1990s and,
for the next several years,
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the lower watershed strained
under the increased sudden
spring runoffs.
In addition, severe freeze-
ups gouged large amounts
of banks during spring ice
breakup, Freeman said. The
ice flows scoured the banks
and undermined the alder
trees.
The stabilization work
will allow the streambank to
stand up to high water and
freezing conditions, and the
rocks will prevent erosion.
Without the effects of high
water and freezing, sediment
will not impact the stream
from runoff where it would
go into Mica Bay, effect-
ing the look and quality of
the water in the bay and for
nearby residents.
The Mica project is
mostly funded by an
$80,000 grant through
IDEQ. The landowner is
also contributing.
The district is also
responsible for four boat
inspection stations in North
Idaho, including on High-
way 53, two on Interstate
90 and at Rose Lake. All
watercraft are inspected for
quagga and zebra mussels.
The
operations
are
funded with a grant from
the Idaho State Department
of Agriculture. The grant is
generally from $400,000
to $490,000, depending if
the time of operations are
extended.
The stations operate from
March to September.
If mussels are detected,
the ISDA and local law
enforcement are contacted
and the watercraft are
impounded.
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By BRIAN WALKER
For the Capital Press
Scientists with the Kit-
titas Reclamation District
(KRD) in Central Wash-
ington have discovered
an innovative way to help
farmers, fish and the envi-
ronment all at once, using
existing infrastructure to
deliver excess water to
streams, irrigation canals
and storage reservoirs.
Launched in 2015, the
Tributary Supplementation
Program is the initial proj-
ect under the 2009 Yakima
Basin Integrated Plan, a
30-year legislatively funded
package that combines the
interests of federal, state,
local, environmental and
tribal stakeholders to estab-
lish long-term water con-
servation strategies for the
region.
KRD Manager Urban
Eberhart said the pro-
gram has already improved
water delivery methods and
storage capacity between
Easton — northwest of
Ellensburg — and the
Yakima Valley, while giv-
ing new life to fish habitats
that had been dried up for
years. He believes KRD’s
work has, at the very least,
helped forestall the impacts
of climate change.
“We have struggled
with snowpack in the upper
Yakima Basin over the past
decade, so we are finding
ways that we can hold the
water that would have tra-
ditionally been held in the
snowpack,” Eberhart said.
“We are looking to spread
out the water in streams,
groundwater infiltration and
large surface-water reser-
voirs so it can act like the
snowpack used to. Then,
we can send the water back
to the river later in the sea-
son when it’s needed most.”
The goal, Eberhart
explained, is to “re-time”
the water’s release into the
main stem of the Yakima
River so it will be available
throughout the growing
season, without the threat
of service interruptions or
rations. All the while, the
staggered river flows have
contributed to the return
of many healthy tribu-
tary ecosystems, provid-
ing more hospitable condi-
tions — plus shade and food
resources — for migrating
fish.
“Rather than just con-
serving the water and not
doing anything with it,
we’re getting it out into the
streams and building up our
groundwater storage while
providing
much-needed
ecosystem services along
the way,” he said.
Late last year, KRD
began installing a network
of 7-foot diameter pipes
in the district’s southern
branch that will increase
water capacity and sav-
ings by connecting a series
of Yakima River tributar-
ies. Eberhart said when the
project is completed this
spring, the pipes will con-
nect with irrigation canals
to deliver more water to
farmers through the spring
and summer.
KRD also installed
geo-membrane liners in
the canals and covered por-
tions of them with concrete,
which will help the district
conserve water supply and
become more drought-toler-
ant in future years.
“We can get the water
delivered
more
eas-
ily through the canal sys-
tem, but we’re also creat-
ing capacity so we can move
even more water through,”
Eberhart said, adding that
KRD is hoping to drill a
4.5-mile tunnel under Man-
astash Ridge that would fill
a proposed storage reser-
voir in the Yakima River
Canyon. “We’re hoping the
work we do now will help us
prepare for a rapidly chang-
ing environment.”
The Tributary Supple-
mentation Program has been
so successful that KRD’s
ability to simultaneously
improve water delivery and
conservation methods, and
restore fish habitats, has con-
vinced other states to make
similar investments.
“We’re on the cutting
edge of what is going to
become common practice
in the 17 Western reclama-
tion states,” Eberhart said.
“We’ve shown that what we
are doing is better for farms,
better for fish, and better for
the environment.”
With climate change
accelerating faster than sci-
entists predicted just 10
years ago, KRD and other
regional water districts have
no choice but to act.
“Things are changing
right before our eyes, and
that has added to our sense
of urgency,” he said.
S227078-1