Homework 7 – Preparation for the Role Play* 

* Evaluating Elements of the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan

To prepare to take part in the class activity, you need to learn about the water challenges of the Yakima River Basin and the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan.  To do this, you will have several readings. Some will be shared by everyone so we have some common understanding, some will be specific to your stakeholder role.

In any serious effort to promote more sustainable water resource management, one must engage in a long, interdisciplinary, and hopefully inclusive process – one that blends science, policy, politics, values, traditions, etc.  The people in the Yakima River Basin and the Washington State government have long been aware of the water challenges in the basin and have been struggling to come to some compromises to preserve water resources and ecosystems while also accommodating cultural needs, agricultural productivity, and development potential.  Learning about the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan will provide a window into the kind of controversies and decisions that must be grappled with in any region coping with insufficient water to meet demands.

For this assignment, work through the following steps…

Step 1 – Work through the common readings

Step 2 – Do the readings specific to your stakeholder role

Take good notes throughout steps 2 and 3 to help you keep in mind the most significant water-related challenges in the Yakima River Basin, potential solutions to them, and your stakeholder perspectives related to them. To learn more, you can peruse the articles listed in Other Resources, or dive into the readings for other stakeholders.

The Common Readings

Stakeholder Specific Readings (citations lacking links are in Canvas in the Readings for 5/21 Module)

  1. Senior Water Rights Holders (Anthony Arutyunov, Katie Boyd, Michael Case, Danielle Hufana, Binit Khadka, Bob Lewis, Lauren Mamaghani, Angelica Mendoza, Emily Person)
  2. Center for Environmental Law & Policy (n.d.). Kittitas County: Water Scarcity and Exempt Wells. http://www.celp.org/archive/kittitas/petition/overview.html
  3. Bacon, T (2015). State Buying Up Water Rights in Yakima River Basin. Spokane Public Radio. http://spokanepublicradio.org/post/state-buying-water-rights-yakima-river-basin
  4. Washington State Department of Ecology (2013). Water Rights in Washington. https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/publications/961804swr.pdf  [As much of the controversy in water allocation in the Yakima Basin (and elsewhere) revolves around water rights, this is a FAQ that can help you get a sense of how water rights are established.]

 

  1. Junior Water Rights Holders (Nora Abdi, Abdullah Alsubhi, Eugene Joo, Alexa Luna, Duha Mohamed, Michael Ngo, Mevin Santhosh, Shawn Smith, Clarissa Teodoro)
  2. Morrison, S (2013). Letter to the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project Workgroup on behalf of the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/2013meetings/2013-03-13/11ybsa.pdf
  3. Columbia Institute for Water Policy (2007). History of Over-Appropriation in the Yakima River Basin. http://columbia-institute.org/blackrock/backrock/Overappropriation.html
  4. Columbia Institute for Water Policy (2007). The Black Rock Dam Proposal. http://columbia-institute.org/blackrock/backrock/Proposed_dam.html

 

  1. Government Representatives (Gerardo Apin, Kayla Chamberlain, Highland Edelman, Keegan O’Neill, Juan Pena, Marvin Puna, Melissa Radecke, Anna Strigenz)
  2. Malloch, S and Garrity, M (2015). Yakima River Basin Integrated Plan: Implementing Basin-Scale Water Management & Climate Adaptation. The Water Report. Pages 1-8. http://swwrc.wsu.edu/documents/2015/05/thewaterreport135.pdf
  3. There are several comment letters from government agencies in the following report starting on page 522 of the pdf reader (CR-30): S. Department of Interior (2012). Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Plan Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/reports/FPEIS/fpeis.pdf
  4. Benitz, M (2009). Re: Yakima Supplemental Draft. Comment letter to Derek Sandison, Washington State Department of Ecology. First letter in pdf. [See Readings for 6/2 Module in the Canvas site]

 

  1. Environmental Groups (Roni Bass, Kylie Cope, Gloria Gonzalez-Zapata, Emma Hattori, Stephanie Mai, Angelina Monary, Jake Salvador, Ranim Shayko, Audrey Tinnin)

Read the first article by Martin, then at least three of the others taking issue with aspects of the plan:

  1. Martin, J (2007). Big Growth, Big Fight Over Water. The Seattle Times. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/big-growth-big-fight-over-water/
  2. Cantrell, S (2009, 2012, 2013). 3 Letters regarding the Bumping Lake enlargement proposal from the Seattle Audubon Society. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/2013meetings/2013-03-13/14audubon.pdf
  3. Evans, B (2009). Re: Comments of the Endangered Species Coalition on Work Group Draft Integrated Plan. Letter to the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Working Group. [pdf available in Readings for 5/22 Module in the Canvas site.]
  4. Forsgaard, K (2013). Yakima Plan Blunders On. The Wild Cascades. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/2013meetings/2013-03-13/12cmaykut.pdf [A pretty scathing assessment of the plan.]
  5. McGuire, R, Bates, M, Suckling, K, Skinner, S, Bekker, G, Evans, B, Zuber, J, Maykut, C, Pica, E, Adams, C, Town M, Konigsmark, K, and Baldi, G (2012). Re: Proposed National Recreation Areas. Letter to the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Workgroup on behalf of several environmental groups. [pdf available in Readings for 5/22 Module in the Canvas site.]
  6. O’Keefe, T (2011). Re: Integrated Water Resource Management Plan, Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project. Comment letter representing views of American Whitewater in U.S. Department of Interior (2011). Scoping Summary Report – Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/final-scopsum-red.pdf [See the docx of just the letter in Readings for 5/22 Module in the Canvas site]
  7. Platt, E (2009). Letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regarding the Bumping Lake Storage Expansion Proposal on behalf of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force. [pdf available in Readings for 5/22 Module in the Canvas site.]
  8. Ransel, K, Carter, N, Del Giudice, P, Ellis, S, Baldi, J, Wahl, L, Masonis, R, Leaumont, R, Arthur, B, Curtis, J and Beardslee, K (2003). Letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation about the Black Rock Storage Proposal from 10 environmental groups. Water Planet. http://www.waterplanet.ws/pdf/wpbr20061210.pdf

 

  1. The Tribal Nations (Benny Lee, Hank Kilmer, Daniel McCoy, Maritza Ortega, David Perales, Elena Pham, Elizabeth Roe, Angelo Tadrous, Xiting Wang, Xuefing Xia, Luxin Zhang)
  2. Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation (2012). Re: Joint Yakama Nation, Roza Irrigation District Comments on Yakima Basin Storage Study. Letter to Derek Sandison, Washington State Department of Ecology and David Kaumheimer, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.   [See Readings for 5/22 Module in the Canvas site]
  3. Normandeau Associates (2014). Water Rights/Tribal Treaty Rights, in Technical Review: Yakima River Basin Study  Proposed Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. Prepared for the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance.  Pages 27-32. http://ybsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/YBSA-IP-Technical-Review-Revised-Final-Report-7-29-14.pdf
  4. There are several other comment letters from tribal nations in the following report starting on page 509 of the pdf reader (CR-17): S. Department of Interior (2012). Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Plan Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/reports/FPEIS/fpeis.pdf

 

 

Other Resources

Cook, J and Rabotyagov, S (2015). Water Markets: Do Agricultural Sellers Only Care About the Offered Price per Acre-Foot?  Evans School of Business. University of Washington. http://evans.uw.edu/sites/default/files/public/EvansWorkingPaper-2011-06.pdf

 

Kent, C (2004). Water Resource Planning in the Yakima River Basin: Development vs. Sustainability. Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 66: 27-60. https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/yearbook_of_the_association_of_pacific_coast_geographers/v066/66.1kent.html#fig01

 

Martin, J (2007). Big Growth, Big Fight Over Water. The Seattle Times.  http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/big-growth-big-fight-over-water/

Ulep, AJ. (2013). Water They Doing Right in Yakima? A Qualitative Study in Collaborative Watershed Planning of the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. Thesis, Goldman Honors Program in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University. http://www.academia.edu/10665427/Water_they_doing_right_in_Yakima_A_Qualitative_Study_in_Collaborative_Watershed_Planning_of_the_Yakima_River_Basin_Integrated_Water_Resource_Management_Plan

 

U.S. Department of Interior (2011). Scoping Summary Report – Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/2011integratedplan/final-scopsum-red.pdf

 

U.S. Department of Interior (2012). Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Plan Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/reports/FPEIS/fpeis.pdf

Washington State Department of Ecology – Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (YBIP) http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/YBIP.html [A web page with links to many documents]

Wilkins-Wells, K (2011). Water Rights Markets – Again. Wisdom in Water, Please… http://nwksgmd4.blogspot.com/2011/07/water-rights-markets-again.html

Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project Columbia-Cascades Area Office – http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/yrbwep/ [A web page with links to many documents]

Yakima Basin Storage Alliance – http://ybsa.org/ [A web page with links to many documents. This alliance promotes the formation of more and bigger reservoirs.]

Yakima Basin Storage Alliance (2012). Why YBSA believes more water is required for the Integrated Plan. http://ybsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Why-YBSA-belives-more-water-is-required-for-the-IP-final1.pdf