In the Western United States, watershed management is transitioning to an integrated process wherein stakeholders and engineers approach individual water and environmental projects as pieces of a puzzle, each dependent on the other for long-term success. Between 1999 and 2005, the Walla Walla Watershed Planning Unit (Planning Unit) employed an integrated process to coordinate the input and needs of a multitude of stakeholders to form a comprehensive watershed plan for Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 32.
The Walla Walla urban growth area is the economic and commercial hub of this watershed - a region where agriculture, wineries, several American Indian Tribes, recreation and a city of about 40,000 thrive and are dependent on a limited supply of water. This project represents a unique experiment in developing a sustainable water management strategy for the future while accommodating and protecting the quality of life in this picturesque area of Washington.
Instream flow management
Seasonal low-flow conditions exist naturally in the Walla Walla basin. Summer peak demands exacerbate this condition, resulting in degraded fish habitat conditions. Groundwater withdrawals from shallow aquifers also impact flows in certain areas. To address these issues, the Planning Unit recommended new appropriation flows (NAF) for four management points. An Indian Reservation can be granted an allowance above the recommended NAF for "environmental enhancement storage projects" with consensus recommendation from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Planning Unit and initiating governments (with technical advice from the Snake River Regional Technical Team).
Additionally, modifications to existing administrative stream closures in the basin addressing all tributaries in WRIA 32 are advised based on where and when important life stage and species occur. Simply setting new appropriation flows and updating closures will not increase the amount of water available to support instream management objectives. Flow enhancement is important to fish recovery and will benefit terrestrial species. The Planning Unit developed preliminary flow enhancement targets to be achieved through a variety of voluntary measures. Updated flow enhancement targets will be established over time.
Groundwater management
The Planning Unit and major water users throughout the basin realize that better utilization of existing sources and recharge/expansion of these sources are the best long-term approaches for groundwater supplies.
The following general strategies have been identified as the most applicable to the basin:
Reduce demands via conservation, reuse and irrigation efficiencies.
Enhance shallow alluvial aquifer and deeper basaltic aquifer recharge.
Identify opportunities and streamline groundwater rights transfers, purchases and leases.
Coordinate ground water use and development regionally.
Improve understanding of surface/groundwater interaction through monitoring and regional hydrogeologic study.
Surface water quality management
The primary goals of surface water management are ensuring public drinking water quality, protecting fish and supporting aquatic biota. This is an ongoing process based on continued accrual and analysis of new water quality monitoring data. As a result of updates to the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act Section 303(d) list for Washington, the water quality strategies in the Watershed Plan are expected to become more specific with the completion of total maximum daily load studies and further public reviews.
The Planning Unit identified four focus areas within the realm of surface water quality management:
Reduce non-point source pollution;
Support and maintain point source programs;
Improve watershed-wide information database; and
Minimize detrimental impacts from water resource management.
General management actions are likely to include preventing and/or?mitigating impacts from forest practices, agricultural land use and storm water as well as improving understanding of watershed problems and solutions through monitoring.
Groundwater quality management
Similar to the goals established for surface water, groundwater quality-related planning goals are to ensure public drinking water quality, protect fish and support aquatic biota. Based on overall planning goals and data limitations, the Planning Unit identified the following specific groundwater quality objectives:
Improve watershed-wide information database;
Clean up impacted groundwater supplies;
Prevent future potential degradation of clean groundwater supplies; and
Prevent further degradation of impacted groundwater supplies.
General management actions related to groundwater quality include assessing susceptibility of groundwater supplies to contamination, improving detection and monitoring of impacts, upgrading local wellhead protection programs, minimizing impacts of land-use activities by implementing technical management strategies, cleaning up sources of contamination and providing oversight for well decommissions to ensure compliance with safe practices.
Aquatic habitat management
The Walla Walla Sub-basin Plan serves as the basis for aquatic habitat management within WRIA 32. Additionally, the Snake River Salmon Recovery Plan, a regional effort to identify recovery goals for salmonids in the lower portion of the Snake River drainage, will be incorporated into the management strategy upon its completion. The Sub-basin Plan includes a vision statement, working hypotheses, biological objectives and management strategies.
The following information describes the prioritized strategies:
Imminent Threat - Includes passage barriers that might delay migration, fish screens and unscreened diversions that might entrain migrating fish or prevent passage, and dry-stream reaches that prevent passage or cause stranding.
Priority Areas - Includes stream reaches that, if allowed to further degrade, represent substantial decline in abundance, productivity and life-history diversity.
Conversely, if restored they show greater gains in abundance, productivity and life-history diversity when compared to other areas.
In addition to general regulatory, stakeholder education, conservation and flow management strategies, programs will be initiated to address habitat-specific goals such as controlling noxious weed populations; restoring perennial vegetation; improving riparian habitat; constructing pool and riffle habitat; and maintaining, relocating or eliminating forest, public and private roads in sensitive areas.
Management plan
The Walla Walla River Watershed encompasses 1,758 square miles in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon. WRIA 32 comprises 1,278 square miles of the Washington portion and is divided into five implementation zones for the purpose of the management plan. Basin-wide strategies were established for managing instream flows, groundwater quantity, surface and groundwater quality and habitat management. With the completion of the Integrated Water Resources Management Plan, all of the stakeholders have their assignments, and the community has a strategy designed to meet the economic, irrigated agriculture and municipal water supply needs for the long term. At the same time, the plan calls for enhancing and managing the instream resources required by the Endangered Species Act and broader environmental objectives.
This is a true partnership among federal, tribal, state and local governments, with priorities being set by property owners and citizens of the watershed, giving the entire community a real and personal stake in ensuring its effective implementation.
Furthermore, the plan is based on sound science and guided by good public policy.
