During the winter of 1999-2000, negotiations between local irrigators, USFWS and environmental groups led to an out-of-court settlement to restore flows to the Walla Walla River. From as early as the late 1800's, the Oregon portion of the Walla Walla River (from Milton-Freewater north to the state line) has been dry due to a combination of irrigation diversions, instream gravel mining and natural geologic features. In 2001, this landmark agreement resulted in the Walla Walla River flowing continuously through the summer from headwaters to the mouth for the first time in over a hundred years (Fig. 8). The current two-year agreement required the two Oregon irrigation districts (Walla Walla River Irrigation District and Hudson Bay District Improvement Company) to release of 18 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs) during the 2001 irrigation season and 25 cfs of water for 2002. In addition, a Washington irrigation district (Gardena Farms Irrigation District #13) bypassed 14 cfs in 2001 and 18 cfs in 2002. In 2000, the initial year of the agreement, the two Oregon Districts bypassed 13 cfs and Gardena Farms bypassed 7 cfs. The gradual reductions in river flows allowed fish the time to move upriver to better habitat as lower river conditions degraded. The annual rescues of stranded fish are no longer necessary. The Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council has aided, and will continue to assist in the development and continued implementation of this agreement by collecting water quality/quantity data along the Walla Walla River, and specifically along this re-watered river segment (Fig. 5).

Subbasin Plan Development

The Northwest Power Planning Council (now known as Northwest Power and Conservation Council”, or NWPCC) was directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to develop a program to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin. Through this effort, annual recommendations will be made to the Bonneville Power Administration to fund projects to implement the program. The purpose of a subbasin plan is to document subbasin conditions and evaluate indicators that drive the implementation of NWPPC programs at the subbasin level. Ultimately, the subbasin plan will be used by NOAA Fisheries and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help inform their recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species. The plan will also be evaluated for consistency with the Clean Water Act, federal treaty and trust responsibilities with the basin Native American Tribes, and the NWPPC 2000 Fish and Wildlife Program. In the Walla Walla Subbasin, the planning process will have an Oregon component and a Washington component. For more information about the plan for the Oregon portion, please contact Brian Wolcott at (541) 938-2170 or by email at brian.wolcott@wwbwc.org The Walla Walla River Subbasin Plan will be developed in collaboration with fish and wildlife managers, local governments, and other local interest groups and stakeholders and resource managers. The Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council will function as the lead entity for the Oregon half of the subbasin. The Watershed Council will work closely with its Washington counterpart, the Walla Walla Watershed Planning Unit, to create an integrated plan. A core planning team is being developed, pulling largely from the Bi-State Habitat Conservation Planning (HCP) process currently underway, to establish a mitigation strategy for in-basin impacts to ESA listed bull trout and steelhead. The core team will also bring in terrestrial wildlife managers, which are not a focus for the HCP. The Walla Walla Subbasin Planning process will utilize a group of technical experts from state and federal resource managers and consultants to compile and analyze the data and develop the Plan based on current scientific understanding of the Walla Walla River Subbasin. In addition, because the Plan is to be developed locally and adopted with as much community support as possible, public involvement will be a fundamental part of the process.

Clean Water Act Compliance, Total Maximum Daily Load Allocation, and Water Quality Management Plan Development

Residents of the Walla Walla Watershed are currently undergoing the processes and pressures associated with enforcement of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) as well as honoring the historical treaty rights with our local indigenous tribes. Both Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) and Washington's Department of Ecology (WDOE) are developing and implementing TMDLs (total maximum daily load allocations) for a variety of non-point source pollution problems. Concurrently, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are enforcing their endangered species protection policies for native steelhead and bull trout populations. In many watersheds in the Pacific Northwest, these processes have become volatile and confrontational, pitting state, federal, tribal, and environmental agencies and groups against local water users and other natural resource based industries.

The Walla Walla River has been listed as a "water quality limited stream" on the 303d list of the Clean Water Act in both the states of Oregon and Washington. The WWBWC will continue to assist the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in developing a Walla Walla River TMDL for temperature until its completion in 2003. The WWBWC Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator is participating in TMDL development and implementation through data collection and analysis, computer modeling, and assisting with local development of the Water Quality Management Plans (WQMP) by each of the Designated Management Agencies (DMAs)(Fig. 5). In Washington, the WDOE recently started the TMDL process for their portion of the basin. This process is separate from Oregon's TMDL process. The WDOE will be developing TMDLs for the following parameters on the main stem of the Walla Walla River: Temperature, 4,4'-DDE, 4,4'-DDT, Chlordane, Dieldrin, Heptachlor, Heptachlor Epoxide, Hexachlorobenezene, PCB-1260, pH, and Fecal Coliform. On Mill Creek they will be looking at pH and temperature and on the Touchet River temperature and Fecal Coliform (Fig. 5).

Surface/Groundwater Interaction
        Spring Branches/Little Walla Walla River

The Walla Walla River was once a braided river system, diverging into “distributaries” near the area of Milton-Freewater, and from there flowing roughly north and west to rejoin the “main stem” in Washington.” Today's largest channel (known as the “Tum-A-Lum” branch) is now managed as the main vector for high water and fish passage. The river braids west of the main stem were developed near the town of Milton-Freewater for irrigation use by channelizing and adding a series of ditches to distribute river water for irrigation use. In Oregon, this system provides a majority of the water needed for the valley's irrigated agriculture. Closer to the Washington/Oregon border these braids were left to flow to the state line area where they are supplemented by numerous spring branches that emerge from shallow groundwater. In the last three years of the above-mentioned USFWS/Districts mitigations, water kept in the main stem of the Walla Walla River consequently meant less water for these Walla Walla River braids and springs. Concerned landowners and citizens that live and make their living in the hydraulic vicinity of this system have documented fish mortalities, aquatic and riparian terrestrial species absence, domestic and irrigation wells drying up, and the loss of legal surface water rights they traditionally utilized. The WWBWC will develop a Little Walla Walla River monitoring plan, which will assist in quantifying these changes in flow and water quality data and in turn, insure that these watershed residents have a voice in the basin-wide watershed management. The WWBWC will continue monitoring efforts in the Oregon portion of the Little Walla Walla system (Fig. 5). The Washington portion is monitored by the WDFW and WDOE (Fig.5).

        Tum-A-Lum branch (Walla Walla “main stem”)

The three main irrigation districts are also implementing conservation and irrigation efficiency plans to increase instream flows with assistance from the Bureau of Reclamation, Oregon Water Resource and the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council. However the possible effects (with regards to the basins’ water budget) of transferring surface water use to ground water use and increasing instream flows are unknown.

The hydrologic connectivity between the shallow aquifer and surface flows along the main stem of the Walla Walla River (Oregon) has been altered over the years by human activity, and many speculate that these human-induced disturbances of the river’s characteristics and ground water levels have significantly impacted the ability of the main stem to carry surface flow making it a influent river during the dry summer months. Federal, state (OR & WA), local and tribal agencies, as well as irrigators and involved citizens have all expressed interest in a qualitative understanding of the ground-surface water interactions and the hydro-geologic characteristics, particularly along the highly impacted “levee” section the main stem. This information is essential to both the long term water budget planning as well as to restoration efforts that return flow to the main stem such as irrigation efficiency projects, water-rights leasing and purchasing programs, levee setback land acquisitions, irrigation ditch lining and piping projects, aquifer recharge and storage, and habitat improvement projects.

If the long-term picture is increased surface flow in reaches of the Walla Walla basin, which now “lose” (water is never “lost” in a complete water budget) considerable amounts of water, a more definitive picture of the hydrodynamics of the Walla Walla River system is required. The WWBWC will continue to focus on this specific geographic locality in the watershed, while at the same time applying the methodology and findings to the development of a basin wide hydrogeologic investigation, which can assist in resolving water and ESA related issues.

TMDL/ODA Water Quality Plan Effectiveness Monitoring

The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Umatilla Soil and Water Conservation District have developed an Oregon Senate Bill 1010 (SB1010) Agriculture Water Quality Rules and Plan for the Walla Walla Basin. The SB1010 process is a statewide planning process involving local communities in establishing basin specific standards and recommendations for best management practices for area agriculture. The WWBWC has aided in the development of this plan, which was approved in 2002. This plan specifically calls for project implementation and effectiveness monitoring for the Walla Walla basin. The WWBWC will continue to support this process by providing baseline water quality, and sediment information for the process as requested in the plan (Fig. 5).

USACE/CTUIR Feasibility Study

For nearly a century the Walla Walla River has been dry during the heat of summer. This century of periods of dry channel has had its effect on the aquatic ecosystem in the Walla Walla River. Fish populations now exist at significantly diminished levels. There are many groups in the Walla Walla River Basin that are working to restore the aquatic ecosystem and bring the fish populations back. One of these groups is a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The CTUIR has sponsored a Feasibility Study to examine aquatic ecosystem restoration in the Walla Walla Basin. Based on information from a USACE Reconnaissance Study (1997), the draft Walla Walla Subbasin Summary (2001) and the desires of the CTUIR, the study has focused on the lack of instream flow (a limiting factor identified in the Subbasin Summary).

There are currently four options being studied for increasing instream flow: increasing irrigation efficiency, constructing off channel storage, exchanging water from the Columbia and/or Snake rivers, and purchasing water rights from willing sellers. The study will also involve baseline documentation that includes a Water Budget, hydraulics analysis, and a biological analysis. The baseline studies will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the alternatives (one or more of the options listed above or others that might be identified). The water budget is being developed from data gathered by the WWBWC and others, thus building on their preliminary work. It will include both surface hydrology and groundwater data. It will extend in detail from Milton Freewater to Touchet on the Walla Walla, and include major tributaries as needed. The water budget will show how the proposed alternatives affect instream flows. The hydraulics analysis will determine the effect changes in instream flow have on flow depth, velocity, flow area, etc. These parameters will be linked to the needs and result in benefits to the aquatic ecosystem. The WWBWC will continue to assist in data collection and interpretation, and provide guidance and feedback to support and inform the Feasibility Study.

Bi-State Habitat Conservation Plan Development

Currently in the Walla Walla Basin, a Bi-State Coordinating Committee from across the political spectrum has initiated a process known as Habitat Conservation Planning. The Committee has been formed involving landowners, cities, counties, tribes, and state and federal agencies in Oregon and Washington. A Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is a planning document that is a mandatory component of an Incidental Take Permit application with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Signatories to an HCP must ensure that the effects of the authorized incidental take will be adequately minimized and mitigated to the maximum extent practicable. It is hoped that this plan will help to improve conditions for ESA-listed fish and other wildlife, while providing economic stability and certainty over the next fifty years regarding what will be expected of irrigators, the rest of the farming community, cities and counties. The Coordinating Committee meets every month or two months, alternating between Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater meeting locations. Although it is expected that it will take three to four years to finalize the plan, efforts are already underway to make improvements such as screening irrigation diversions and increasing flows to allow fish passage (Fig. 8). The WWBWC will support this process by continuing to play a key role in assisting landowners in reducing “Take” liability and improving water use efficiency, while at the same time documenting improvements, providing a forum for discussion and planning, and identifying further opportunities.

Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan Development

An important part of bi-state Habitat Conservation Plan development involves the drafting and adoption of a Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan (CIDMP), which provides guidance for water management. In addition, a CIDMP identifies areas with room for improvement (such as irrigation timing, delivery, application, etc.) and establishes requirements for some practices. The CIDMP will serve as a baseline reference for ensuring all reasonable steps to minimize species “take” have been designed and will be implemented, thereby providing certainty, limiting liability, and ensuring compliance with the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. Furthermore, the CIDMP provides a way for monitoring efforts to demonstrate project implementation and effectiveness. The WWBWC will take a lead role in the development of a CIDMP for upriver water users, primarily by conducting extensive outreach, planning, and writing activities.

Bull Trout Recovery Plan Development

In response to bull trout listing and initiation of the recovery planning process, the Walla Walla working group (previously-established, and which includes Watershed Council staff) has been combined with additional specialists and formed the Umatilla-Walla Walla recovery unit team.  The Umatilla-Walla Walla recovery unit team includes technical experts and landowners from Oregon and Washington, and is responsible for assisting in the development of goals, objectives, and specific strategies leading to species recovery. In addition to technical support, plan development is assisted by the experience and insight of local community leaders, landowners, and other citizens. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is currently accepting comments on the proposed Bull Trout Recovery Plan and Critical Habitat Designations. A date has not been set for the issuance of the final plan. The Recovery Plan and Critical Habitat Designations, while not legally-binding, (except for actions undertaken by federal entities, which normally require consultation with USFWS), will serve as templates to guide future fish, water and habitat management. The WWBWC will continue to serve as a forum for planning and assist in providing guidance to Federal agencies.

This is the description of the issues and drivers in the Walla Walla Watershed that appears in the 2003 Strategic Action Plan.  Links to download the Figures mentioned above, as well as the entire document, can be found on the 2003 Strategic Action Page.