04/21/05 Some more water for Odessa sub-area

04/21/05 Some more water for Odessa sub-area

Washington Ag April 21, 2005 The East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, the Department of Ecology and the Bureau of Reclamation signed an agreement this week that will allow some irrigators in the Odessa aquifer area to replace their declining groundwater supplies with surface water from the Columbia Basin Project. Dick Erickson, manager of the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, says the water is available as a result of successful conservation efforts in the district. Erickson: "The goal is to be able to deliver it starting with the 2006 irrigation season. The way the water splits out based on the agreement we'd be able to deliver to about 21-hundred acres next year, which is a minor amount in terms of the need in the Odessa sub-area. There is about 160-thousand acres out there on wells that could benefit from a replacement supply, but in this particular exercise all we are going to get is enough for about 21-hundred acres." The district's board of directors will decide later this summer which farmers will be getting the project water. Of the over 10-thousand acre feet of water conserved about 63-hundred is going to farmers and the remaining 42-hundred acre feet per year will be split between municipal and industrial users and environmental enhancement activities. I'm Bob Hoff.
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