Climate Change > Partnerships, collaboration keys to Western water management

Partnerships, collaboration keys to Western water management

Submitted by chris_hunt on Tue, 2016-03-22 08:54
Conservation
Trout Magazine
Climate Change

2013-winter-methow-steelhead-fishing.jpg

Fly fishing for winter steelhead in Washington's Methow River.

 

By Laura Zeimer

I’ve been working on water in the Northern Rockies for almost two decades now. As anyone out here knows, if you work on water, and you’re in the Rocky Mountains, you’re working on drought. Drought in the West is a constant, whether it’s on the horizon or up-close and personal. My work has been to find ways to create resilience in the face of scarcity; to find abundance where there has been shortage. This isn’t easy work, and working for Trout Unlimited as I do, there are plenty of folks who would just as soon see me leaving as coming, “—there’s no place to talk about water for fish when crops are thirsty,” folks have said. But what I’ve learned is that if we can come together in a watershed to make the river better off, we can find a way to do it so that everyone is better off. 

Trout Unlimited’s invitation to join the White House Water Summit reflects not only the scope of drought’s impacts but also the importance of charting a path forward that doesn’t leave anyone behind. 

At Trout Unlimited, when we talk about what this path forward looks like, we talk about partnership and collaboration, about flexibility and creativity, about applying sound science and about engaging communities and local stakeholders in devising ground-up solutions. TU recently outlined several key principles to consider in charting a path forward for drought resiliency. From among these principles, TU will highlight successful partnerships that demonstrate two key principles at today’s White House Water Summit:  1) Address aging water infrastructure by creating benefits for both people and fish; and, 2) Clarify the tax code to promote transfers of water rights from one use to another.

 

TU staffers and other stakeholders discuss upgrades to the Methow River irrigation system. 

          1. Address aging water infrastructure by creating benefits for both people and fish

Every antiquated water infrastructure problem is an opportunity to create new benefits for river health and drought resiliency. This means that the West’s abundant supply of aging water infrastructure is an abundance of opportunity to heal old wounds and create new benefits. Trout Unlimited (TU) has been working these opportunities across the West: 

  • Eastern Washington’s Methow Valley has had some of the most divisive wars over water allocation between long-standing irrigation needs and imperiled chinook and coho salmon, steelhead, and bull trout—all listed under the Endangered Species Act. TU will finish work in 2016 with the Methow Valley Irrigation District to invest in their aging water infrastructure in a way that increases the reliability of their irrigation water delivery, sends water to the Town of Twisp, and increases flows for imperiled salmon and steelhead. Piping canals and installing new wells will leave up to 11 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water in the Twisp River and 4 cfs in the Methow River, or 6,732 gallons per minute. Complementing this major water infrastructure investment are many small tributary efforts that have now reconnected much of the Methow River basin, restoring both access to and the quality of historic spawning and rearing habitat for imperiled salmon and steelhead.  Read more about TU’s partnership and projects with MVID, here; watch a video about this project, here.
  • In Montana’s upper Missouri River basin on the Sun River, TU, the Fort Shaw Irrigation District, and members of the Sun River Watershed Group worked to create multi-sector benefits. They are an example of a public-private partnership at its best. The Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART program provided significant irrigation infrastructure dollars in 2012 and 2013, matched by state and local dollars, contributions from the Irrigation District, and private contributions from the Coca-Cola Company. The Natural Resources Conservation Service contributed to the success of the project with new on-ranch center pivots that required less water to be delivered, to match the more efficient delivery of water through the irrigation district. The Coca-Cola Company’s contributions were essential to securing the flow restoration benefits to the chronically-dewatered Sun River from the irrigation infrastructure upgrades within Fort Shaw Irrigation District.  Two-thousand feet of lined canal, 2,310 feet of PVC pipe, and a new bypass canal created the opportunity to keep more water in the Sun River’s wild trout fishery. 

To make the most of limited federal funds, TU is urging that federal grant criteria (such as Reclamation’s WaterSMART program) require that water infrastructure or supply projects selected for federal funding create benefits for fish, wildlife and recreation through improved instream flows while meeting demonstrated water user needs. This will mean that there will be at least dual benefits among the four sectors implicated in water infrastructure (agriculture, environment, municipal, and renewable energy). Focusing limited federal resources on such multi-benefit projects will help increase drought resiliency of watersheds, avoid future resource conflicts and reflect the broad public benefits that are statutorily authorized and should flow from investment of limited federal resources. To read more about TU’s suggestions for WaterSMART grant criteria, click here. 

         2. Promote transfers of water rights from one use to another. 

TU has pioneered the transfer of water rights to an instream use in many parts of the drought-stricken West. Water right transfers can be temporary, permanent, to provide instream flows, to augment municipal water supplies, or, to transfer water from annual agricultural crops to perennial crops such as orchards during times of drought. What this range of water right transfers have in common is creating new flexibility to respond to changing conditions.

 

The North Piney Creek Canal helps water users be more efficient, leaving more for fish. 

  • In the upper Colorado River basin, TU is working with Wyoming cattle ranchers to reduce water demand and leave that water in the stream to flow to downstream reservoirs, providing flow benefits for fish along the way. Last year, in 2015, TU worked with six ranchers to develop “split-season” irrigation agreements. This means that the rancher would irrigate for the first half of the irrigation season and harvest the first cutting of hay, and then cease irrigation for the second cutting of hay in return for a payment for the irrigation water.  In 2016, TU has $2.03 million worth of such one-year water leases (with only $1.6 million in available funding). These “split-season” water leases were funded through the Colorado River System Conservation Pilot Program (SCPP), an innovative, two-year, program to test demand management in the upper and lower basins of the Colorado River. The objective is to test approaches to reducing consumptive use of water to bolster storage levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The SCPP is also innovative in its broad funding partners: Southern Nevada Water Authority, Central Arizona Water Conservation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Denver Water, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 

Read more about TU’s work with the SCPP program in Wyoming: 

One way to promote water right transfers is to clarify the federal tax code regarding western water rights. TU has requested this clarification, through TU’s pending request for a Revenue Ruling from the IRS, that a charitable, permanent donation of an appropriative water right entitles the donor to a tax deduction. This IRS clarification will have benefits beyond the narrow charitable donation context, and will also benefit private equity investments in water infrastructure by standardizing appraisal and valuation standards for appropriative water rights. Read more about TU’s request for a Revenue Ruling re: western water rights: 

TU applauds the leadership on drought shown through the White House Water Summit and Senator Cantwell’s thoughtful call for comprehensive drought resiliency legislation. 

Ultimately, drought cannot be “solved” at the federal level – truly workable solutions will and should rise from local collaboratives - but the support and engagement shown by Congress and the Administration will be key to ensuring that local solutions can succeed. 

The White House Water Summit demonstrates the federal commitment to the multi-faceted and far-reaching impacts of drought. Likewise, Senator Cantwell’s leadership on drought response has been informed by her support of the Yakima River basin effort in eastern Washington that is implementing a broad, watershed-based, multi-stakeholder approach that invests in both watershed function and irrigation supply to create drought resiliency. TU supports Senator Cantwell’s call for long-term drought legislation that includes: 

  • Support for locally-driven water management, and coordination of federal agencies;
  • Streamline federal funding and bring in non-federal financing, including block grants to fund watershed work; 
  • Advance best tools in technology and science; 
  • Increase water supply solutions—including by improving existing infrastructure, water re-use, and water efficiency; and, 
  • Enhance watershed functions that provide natural water storage and drought resiliency.
  • Click here to download Sen. Cantwell's white paper on drought

Colorado River cutthroat trout.

Water in the West is a complicated issue, fraught with legal, institutional, and political barriers to change. Drought raises the stakes. TU’s common-sense solutions find ways to bring about change that make both the rivers and those who rely on its waters better off.  TU is part of charting the path forward that doesn’t leave anyone behind. 

Read more about TU support for Federal investments in drought: 

 

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