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CapitalPress.com
Friday, May 13, 2022
Stakeholders ask for review of Reclamation repayment policy
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Stakeholders in the Odessa Sub-
area are asking the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation to review the need for
a repayment contract for the cost
of work the agency has done on the
irrigation project.
They also hope to convince
Congress to fund more of the work
without requiring repayment.
Roughly 100 farms have declin-
ing wells in the Odessa Subarea.
Farmers and stakeholders want to
replace well water with Columbia
River water.
“The Odessa program is not
what was anticipated in construc-
tion of the Columbia Basin Proj-
ect,” said Mike Schwisow, direc-
tor of government relations for
the Columbia Basin Development
League. “It instead is a public
interest eff ort to conserve ground-
water for other uses....”
The Odessa program is lim-
ited to acre-for-acre groundwater
replacement, and
not an expansion
to include more
irrigated ground,
Schwisow said.
All
three
Columbia Basin
Mike
irrigation districts
Schwisow
have repayment
contracts for farm
blocks. But the land in Odessa
was never platted in farm blocks
because Reclamation’s construc-
tion of the irrigation works was
never completed. As a result, there
is no repayment contract for the
portion of East Columbia Basin
Irrigation District’s contract cover-
ing that land.
Reclamation consistently tells
Congress that capital construction
can’t be funded because there’s
no repayment contract to recover
the federal investment, Schwisow
said.
Odessa lands to be served by the
pump station-pipeline distribution
systems would instead be served
in the future by construction of the
East High Canal system, originally
included when the Columbia Basin
Project was authorized by Con-
gress in 1943, but was never built.
“In eff ect, the landowners
would have to repay for two sys-
tems, which is patently unfair,”
Schwisow said.
Reclamation funds other pub-
lic interest programs without
requiring repayment contracts,
Schwisow said.
“We’ve asked for a long time,
and the president’s budget has
never included anything for
Odessa, other than continuation of
funding for oversight activities,”
he said. “It hasn’t been nothing,
but it hasn’t been major construc-
tion dollars.”
Last year, federal funding for
oversight increased to $2 million.
The president’s budget included
$1.5 million, and $500,000 was
added through earmarks.
The league estimates com-
pletion of Odessa groundwater
replacement will cost over $266
million, plus $42 million to replace
10 bridges.
Washington state has already
contributed $126 million and East
Columbia Basin Irrigation District
(ECBID) has invested $16.68 mil-
lion in bond sales.
Schwisow doesn’t have an esti-
mate of the total amount farm-
ers would have to repay. It’s con-
stantly shifting, he said, pointing
to state funding and the inclusion
of the project for USDA Natu-
ral Resources Conservation Ser-
vice watershed planning program,
which is grant funding for up to
75% of construction costs in some
areas.
“Whatever we can get through
grant funding reduces what land-
owner repayment would be for
the irrigation district having to go
to the bond market,” Schwisow
said. “We think we have a good
argument. Given the nature of the
Odessa program, this is not stan-
dard Reclamation irrigation devel-
opment. It is a public interest, tem-
porary solution.”
Schwisow said the request for
review doesn’t delay any current
work.
“What we’re looking for with
this is just to open more opportu-
nities,” he said.
Schwisow hopes to hear back
from Reclamation this year.
Reclamation
has
already
reviewed the project under a repay-
ment criteria standard, said Marc
Maynard, fi eld offi ce manager for
the bureau in Ephrata, Wash.
Congress has the ability to give
Reclamation the authority to fund
the project without repayment but
has not done so, Maynard said.
“My understanding is Congress
is not contemplating this, but cer-
tainly that’s something the user-
groups could lobby for, should
they choose to,” he said.
Reclamation will continue to
work with the irrigation districts
and state on Odessa groundwater
replacement, Maynard said.
Owyhee Irrigation District to
receive $1.3 million from USDA
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The Owyhee Irrigation
District will receive about
$1.3 million from USDA
as part of the new federal
infrastructure package, dis-
trict general manager Clancy
Flynn says.
USDA
last
month
announced it will invest $420
million in 132 infrastruc-
ture projects in 31 states. The
work includes rehabilitating
dams, preventing fl ooding
and restoring watersheds.
The agency said the funding
aims to build on a $166 mil-
lion investment announced
earlier this year.
For Oregon, $2.7 million
targets modernization proj-
ects in the Tumalo, Owyhee
and East Fork irrigation
districts.
USDA said moderniza-
tion work “provides a cli-
mate-resilient solution to off -
set the impacts of drought
throughout the regions of
the Deschutes River, Tum-
alo Creek, Snake River and
Hood River watersheds.”
The Owyhee River is a
Snake River tributary.
The agency said open
irrigation canals will be con-
verted to
pipelines
to deliver
water more
efficiently
and “pre-
serve water
Clancy
where it is
Flynn
needed to
restore crit-
ical habitat for designated
trout and salmon species.”
Pipelines reduce loss
from evaporation and seep-
age, divert less water from
rivers and increase fl ow
downstream.
Flynn said May 4 that his
Nyssa, Ore.-based irriga-
tion district is yet to sign an
agreement for the new fund-
ing. The district will use the
money to hire a contractor
and start a watershed plan-
ning process, which will
include public and stake-
holder input.
The district board still
must approve a contract with
USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service, he
said. After it receives the
funding, the board will issue
a request for proposals from
contractors to develop the
watershed plan.
The plan will look at the
district’s system improve-
ments plan in the context of
watershed impacts. Flynn
said the process could start
this year.
He said the watershed
plan positions the district
to apply for more federal
funding, such as through
the Watershed Protection
and Flood Prevention Act.
That law authorizes NRCS
to help organizations plan
and carry out various proj-
ects, including water supply
development.
“We would be able to
accomplish projects that
could take decades in a mat-
ter of years with these big-
ger dollars,” Flynn said.
The district last year
completed
its
system
improvements plan. It calls
for piping canals and later-
als, in part to save water and
energy.
Flynn said much of the
piping completed so far aims
to pressurize water delivery,
particularly where a drop in
elevation reduces the need
to use electric pumps for
sprinkler irrigation.
He said that if the district
gets more money it could
take on other work such as
piping fl atter laterals to save
water.
USFS
A Douglas fi r beetle.
More bark beetle activity
expected in forests this year
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Drought last year means
more bark beetle activity
this year.
More tree mortalities
are expected due to West-
ern pine beetles, Douglas
fi r beetles and pine engraver
beetles.
“It stems from a lot of our
forests being overstocked
to begin with, which leads
to moisture stress among
trees,” said Chris Schnepf,
University of Idaho Exten-
sion forestry educator.
“Drought certainly exacer-
bates that, and the beetles
are just taking advantage of
that.”
Many Douglas fi r trees
fell during the winter of
2020-2021, making easy
pickings for beetles. Doug-
las fi r beetles are also attack-
ing standing groups of trees,
Schnepf said.
Root diseases make trees
more likely to fall in winter
storms, Schnepf said. Fallen
Douglas fi rs create a breed-
ing ground for the beetles.
Pine engraver beetles
tend to attack smaller trees.
Roughly 90% of beetles
breeding in forest slash, or
debris, are pine engraver
beetles, Schnepf said.
“Historically, we have
had two generations per year
in North Idaho,” he said. “In
recent years, increasingly,
we’re seeing three genera-
tions a year because of the
longer growing season.”
All the beetles are native
to the region.
“When conditions are
right, their populations can
explode and you start see-
ing more tree mortality,”
Schnepf said.
He’s seeing the worst
pine beetle activity in stands
south of Coeur d’Alene.
He expects more Douglas
fi r beetle activity in spring
and summer throughout the
Idaho panhandle.
Moisture can strengthen
the trees against the bee-
tles. Rain, cooler conditions
and longer snow periods are
positives this year, Schnepf
said.
“But it depends — last
year we had a really good
snowpack in the winter,
but then the faucet just got
turned off in the fi rst part of
the summer,” he said. “We
didn’t get any precip until
fall.”
However, when beetle
populations are high, the
insect pests can attack for-
ests even in relatively moist
conditions, especially if
trees are overstocked.
Schnepf
recommends
forest owners monitor their
land to see if they are devel-
oping any problems. They
should reduce density,
favoring the best trees for a
given site.
“Sometimes
people
think, ‘Well, I had pines
killed by bark beetles,
maybe I should grow other
species,’” Schnepf said.
“That’s generally not a
good approach. Sites where
we have the most moisture
stress tend to be the drier
sites, and ultimately, pine
are the best adapted spe-
cies to those lower-eleva-
tion drier sites.”
Forest owners doing
work this year should not
leave green stemwood big-
ger than 3 inches in diam-
eter out, which would feed
additional beetle activity, he
said.
UI Extension hosts a
“Bark Beetle and Root Dis-
ease Field Day” June 10 in
Coeur d’Alene. Pre-register
by June 3. A $15 registra-
tion fee covers handouts and
refreshments.
For registration ques-
tions, contact the University
of Idaho Extension Offi ce in
Kootenai County at (208)
292-2525.
Wet April gives Yakima
irrigators full water supply
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Yakima River Basin irri-
gators with junior rights will
receive full water allotments
between now and the end of
September, the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation predicted
May 4.
The south-central Wash-
ington irrigators were facing
slight cutbacks a month ago.
An unusual amount of spring
rain and snow erased the defi -
cit, bureau river operations
engineer Chris Lynch said.
“Precipitation came on
like gangbusters in April,” he
said.
The bureau manages fi ve
reservoirs that hold water to
irrigate some 464,000 acres.
Senior water-right holders
receive full allotments, while
junior water-right holders are
cut back in water-short years.
In early April, the bureau
predicted junior water-right
holders would get 94% of
their normal supplies.
Rain at the reservoirs was
heavy in April — 161% of
normal. The reservoirs are
holding more water than
usual for this time of year and
are expected to fi ll up.
The snowpacks that melt
into the reservoirs were below
normal on April 1, but are
above average now.
“Late snow should help
with irrigation later on,” bureau
hydrologist Mik Lewicki said.