The Yakima River Basin Integrated Plan

The Yakima Basin Integrated Plan is a 30-year, $3.8 billion plan to restore the ecological integrity and provide assurances for water needs for agriculture in the face of on-going climate change.  Five drought years in the past 15 years has severely impacted the multi-billion dollar agriculture sector and plummeted the salmon and steelhead populations causing the Yakama Nation and the local irrigators to join together along with local, state and federal governments and conservation organizations to design and implement a basin-wide climate adaptation strategy that secures a future for fish, farms and families in the Basin. The plan lays out seven key elements to help protect, mitigate, and enhance habitat; provide increased operational flexibility to manage instream flows to meet ecological objectives; and improve the reliability of the water supply for irrigation, municipal supply, and domestic uses. The first phase of the three phase project will be complete by 2025 and includes purchase of 50,000 acres of forested lands and management for restoration and conservation of watershed values, fish passage at Cle Elum Reservoir, Cle Elum pool raise, Kachess to Keechelus conveyance pipeline, $100 million in salmon restoration projects throughout the basin, and water conservation that will save 85,000 acre-feet of water primarily for instream flow improvements. The target outcome of this plan is stable water supplies to support recovery of salmon and steelhead populations and to ensure the existing agricultural water supplies at 70% their allotted amounts during drought conditions.