Feds Say Black Rock Project Too Expensive

NW Fishletter #256, January 8, 2009

The Bureau of Reclamation has decided that an ambitious proposal to pump water from the Columbia River into a massive new storage project in the Yakima watershed called Black Rock Reservoir would be a black hole for federal dollars.

The Bureau's five-year, $18 million study said none of the alternatives reviewed made economic sense, especially the proposal to spend nearly $8 billion to construct a 1.6 MAF storage project that would ease drought conditions for agricultural users. The study said even the Black Rock project wouldn't provide enough fishery benefits to be picked as the preferred alternative in the Bureau's final EIS.

Other less draconian options are still under review by the state of Washington, with a report expected next spring.

The Black Rock project called for construction of a 600-foot-high dam to hold back water pumped uphill from the Priest Rapids Pool on the mainstem Columbia in a 10-mile-long reservoir. The dam would have been larger than Grand Coulee, according to the Yakima Herald Republic. Environmental groups said the project would return only 13 cents for every dollar spent.

The following links were mentioned in this story:

Yakima River Basin Water Storage Feasibility Study