Legislators seek deal on water

“ Gov. Christine Gregoire and Manning are determined to get a bill passed this session or next, he said.”

By Anna King and Chris Mulick, staff writers

Tri-City Herald, January 19, 2006

Legislative negotiators were working late Wednesday in Olympia to craft a compromise to the decades-old battle between irrigators and fish advocates over Columbia River water.

And over a lunch of beef and corn in Kennewick earlier in the day, Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology, told hay growers and shippers it's time for them to get on board.

If they don't, Manning said, they will continue to battle with no new water on their farms, and a federal judge may soon issue an order they may not like.

"The fact is no one's winning and no one's losing; we're in a stalemate," Manning told the crowd of about 100 at the Washington State Hay Growers Association convention at the Three Rivers Convention Center.

Manning said, however, there is hope because state legislators have been negotiating in recent weeks to craft a compromise plan. They must act quickly, though, to get it through the current short 60-day session.

Republicans presented a proposal last week focused on developing new reservoir capacity that Democrats have warmed to. Before a scheduled negotiating session Tuesday night, Sen. Erik Poulsen, a Seattle Democrat and chairman of the Senate Water, Energy and Environment Committee, said they were working on "a few ancillary issues."

Tuesday's meeting was cut short because Democrats weren't prepared to respond to the Republican plan with a bill of their own. Republicans were concerned that was a bad sign, although Poulsen said, "We're very positive right now. I don't want people in the room to think this is unraveling."

Republicans had not received a revision as of Wednesday afternoon and the next scheduled negotiating session was pushed back from today to Friday.

But a resolution may not be within reach just yet. Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, said the storage proposal won't solve irrigators' more immediate needs. By itself, "the storage bill is incomplete and inadequate," he said.

But if the Legislature doesn't act, U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland could order state officials how to manage the river.

In December, Redden rejected the Bush administration's latest plan to operate federally owned dams on the Columbia and its tributaries because it failed to ensure salmon and steelhead runs would not be jeopardized.

Redden ordered the government to continue spilling water over the dams to help young salmon migrate to the ocean. And he has continually made it clear he wants salmon populations to recover, not just remain stable, Manning said Wednesday in Kennewick.

"He is convinced that the federal government could care less about his fish," he said. "We want to show him that we do care."

Manning said any new plan adopted by the Legislature would apply only to new water rights and would likely include expanding reservoir capacity in Lake Roosevelt.

Manning said he also would like to see Washington buy Canadian water stored for power production. Canada has a power surplus and could be persuaded to release the water during critical summer months when rivers run low and temperatures are too hot for fish, Manning said, although that isn't part of the current proposed storage bill.

Gov. Christine Gregoire and Manning are determined to get a bill passed this session or next, he said.

Copyright 2006 TriCity Herald