Reclaiming Return Flows South Columbia Basin Irrigation District’s David Solem and John O’Callaghan on the Largest Water Conservation Project in the Columbia River Basin
John Crotty: How did this project first come about? John O’Callaghan: We had a long-standing interest in pumping the return flow water back into the Columbia River to relieve water shortages. The shortages were not caused by water supply issues, but by usage and capacity limitations. In 2014
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South Columbia Basin Irrigation District
and 2015, we had back-to-back record diversion years due to particularly dry weather conditions. Over the next 2 years, we initiated temporary pumping to mitigate those problems, with some degree of success. Those efforts validated our desire to pursue return flow pumping projects. The return water has already been paid for at the pumps, so the more we can pump before it returns to the river, the less that has to be pumped from Grand Coulee Dam. The Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) Energy Smart Reserved Power (ESRP) program places a value on water that is not pumped, and this could be
the largest and most valuable water conservation project ever done on the Columbia Basin Project. John Crotty: What helped the project move from idea to reality? David Solem: John was probably the biggest factor. We had previous managers who had installed temporary systems to address the water supply and capacity issues, but it was easy to see that there would be a lot of benefits to moving forward with a permanent solution. John brought that vision to the district and set out to make it a reality. There has also been IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOUTH COLUMBIA BASIN IRRIGATION DISTRICT.
Irrigation districts seeking to undertake infrastructure projects often face two perennial obstacles: funding and permitting. The South Columbia Basin Irrigation District (SCBID) had to overcome those challenges when building its return flow pumping station project. The district had to balance the requirement to complete the project quickly to receive needed federal funding against the time-consuming regulatory process, but doing so successfully allowed SCBID to build a project that will improve its water supply and mitigate the effects of drought and other severe weather conditions. SCBID General Manager David Solem and Assistant Manager of Technical Services John O’Callaghan recently spoke with Irrigation Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, about the project’s origins, how it will benefit water users in the district, and the financial and regulatory challenges that districts face when building large infrastructure projects.
WASHINGTON
