Reclamation’s Role in Developing the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan
Radial Gates at the Cle Elum dam.
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Kris Polly: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position. Wendy Christensen: I’ve worked for Reclamation for 29 years. I began at the Technical Service Center in
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Denver, Colorado, and worked there for about a year in an engineering rotation program that had a field detail in Yakima, Washington. I really enjoyed being out in the field, seeing where water gets delivered and how everything works. A lot of construction was going on at the time. I spent 17 years at the Umatilla-Yakima construction office in Yakima, Washington, and was primarily involved in working on design and construction management. When the Umatilla-Yakima construction office was moved to the Pacific Northwest Regional Office in Boise, Idaho, I was asked to transfer to the Upper Columbia Area Office in Yakima, where I started working on large water resource planning studies under the former area manager, Jerry Kelso. We were working on a Yakima basin storage feasibility study with the Washington State Department of Ecology, where I met Derek Sandison. The storage feasibility study focused on water storage and delivery alternatives for Yakima Project irrigators. I credit Jerry and Derek for convening the YRBWEP Workgroup. Several others, including Ron Van Gundy of Roza Irrigation District and Phil Ridgon of the Yakama Nation, also had a hand in making it work.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.
s the federal agency responsible for the Yakima and Columbia Basin irrigation projects in central Washington State, the Bureau of Reclamation plays a key role in implementing the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (YBIP). For decades, Reclamation has been seeking ways to increase water supplies and storage in the basin. Since 2009, Reclamation has participated in bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders, including state and federal agencies, irrigation districts, the Yakama Nation, and environmental groups, to collaborate on the congressionally authorized Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project (YRBWEP). In this interview, Wendy Christensen, Reclamation’s YRBWEP manager, speaks with Irrigation Leader Editorin-Chief Kris Polly about Reclamation’s role in developing and implementing the YBIP.
