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In February 2006, the Legislature passed Chapter 90.90 RCW, the Columbia River Water Supply Act (also referred to as the Columbia River Basin Water Management Program ("the Program") or the Columbia River Basin Water Supply Development Program). The Act requires the Department of Ecology
(Ecology) to develop new water supplies for the Columbia River Basin and to aggressively pursue development of water supplies to benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses.
 The Program's purpose is to provide a reliable supply of water for existing interruptible water rights and for new uses. To accomplish this task, Ecology intends to fund various projects that will conserve water or otherwise make water more available when needed. Part of this new water will remain in the river to enhance flows which will benefit Program participants, existing and new water right users, and aquatic species.
The Program's water supply mandate is broad. The Legislature charges
Ecology to consider new storage, modification of existing storage,
conservation, acquisition, and any other actions designed to provide
access to new water supplies.
The Washington State Conservation Commission is promoting the use of
this Program as a funding source for conservation districts to offer
technical assistance to their landowners to meet their water
conservation project needs. Most of the anticipated technical
assistance will likely be assisting landowners to identify potential
projects and assist with the pre-application and application processes.
Ecology is currently reviewing over 45 pre-applications it received in response to opening up the grant process for the first time. Ecology will do a preliminary investigation of these pre-applications over the next three months and invite potentially fundable project proponents to file applications in early spring 2008.
For more information, please contact Bill Eller.
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