USBR photo
New Dams threaten Ancient Forest and Shrub Steppe Habitat
David E. Ortman photo
Sierra Club is committed to water supply solutions and fish passage that involve common-sense water management.
We believe that in the face of climate change, aggressive water conservation, adoption of water efficiency standards and metering, water markets, low- impact storage projects (e.g., aquifer storage and recovery), forest and flood-plain restoration, and other strategies to promote natural storage are much more cost-effective than new dams, and could vastly improve the efficiency of water use in Washington State.
The historic, massive hydrologic re-engineering of Washington’s rivers using dams and irrigation projects has caused historic environmental damage. We strongly urge decision-makers to focus on future water projects that fix existing problems, not cause new ones.
We oppose any new storage projects on the Yakima River and its tributaries, including the Bumping Dam Enlargement (Large or Small Option), Wymer Dam (on Lmuma Creek), and Black Rock Dam. DOE and Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) identified numerous possible measures for improved water conservation, including measures in the No Action Alternative and the Enhanced Water Conservation Alternative of the January 2008 Yakima River Basin Water Storage Feasibility Study Draft Planning Report/Environmental Impact (Draft Report). The conservation measures of these alternatives should be implemented before there is any further study or action on new storage projects.
The Sierra Club supports conserving land in the Teanaway River watershed. However, we find that such conservation should not serve as “mitigation” for the permanent loss of bull trout habitat and old growth national forest lands surrounding the existing Bumping Lake or shrub-steppe land flooded by a Wymer Dam because such mitigation would be off-site in another Yakima sub-basin and out-of-kind, not replacing the same threatened fish/wildlife habitat.
Links:
Sierra Club - Washington State Chapter
North Cascades Conservation Council
Lower Columbia Audubon Society
Western Federation of Outdoor Clubs
Agencies:
“it’s time to fight back - hard. And this time around, finally enshrine this natural masterpiece where it truly belongs...” Click here to read Brock’s story.
