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.

Amidst this regional climate of conflict, the Walla Walla Basin has become a unique example of people from across the political spectrum coming together to seek practical and fair solutions to natural resource challenges. This collaborative approach has been labeled the "Walla Walla Way" by those involved in the process. Through it's policy and technical staff, the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council (WWBWC) provides key local leadership in these ongoing collaborative efforts. The WWBWC is an Oregon based Watershed Council. Watershed Councils have been established under the authority of state legislation to find locally acceptable solutions to improving their watersheds. The WWBWC has taken the initiative in the areas of watershed management and policy as well as in providing unbiased, high-quality, monitoring and analysis to support these ongoing processes. The WWBWC has also convened the basin-wide Technical Work Group (TWG) of state, federal, tribal, local government, and irrigation district staff to build collaborative relationships among all monitoring project managers and technicians in the basin. Some of the specific areas that our monitoring supports include:

TMDL Development and Implementation

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. Currently the WWBWC is assisting the ODEQ in developing a Walla Walla River TMDL for temperature to be completed in 2002. 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). 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 mainstem of the Walla Walla River: Temperature, 4,4'-DDE, 4,4'-DDT, Chlordane, Dieldrin, Heptachlor, Heptachlor Epoxide, Hexachlorobenezene, PCB-1260, 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.   For more information on the TMDL, click here.

Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring

The WWBWC and numerous partners are implementing a number of projects designed to restore habitat, flows and water quality on the Walla Walla River. These projects, funded by OWEB, BPA, and volunteer landowners include: (A) irrigation efficiency upgrades such as the lining and piping of ditches, the installation of headgates and measuring devices at points of diversion, and flood to sprinkler system conversions, (B) riparian restoration and planting projects, (C) flow restoration through instream leasing and water buy-back programs. Scientifically, it is difficult to quantify reach or even basin-wide improvements to habitat by measuring a single parameter such as flow. The WWBWC is using a variety of monitoring tools to document the anticipated improvements to our system and in turn show the value of these restoration investments. We are in our third year of collecting flow, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and macroinvertebrate data.  For information on the water quality monitoring conducted by the Council, click here.  For information on the variety of monitoring efforts in the basin, click here.

USFWS/Irrigation Districts Agreement

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 stateline) 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 mouth to headwaters for the first time in over a hundred years. The current two-year agreement facilitated the two Oregon irrigation district's (Walla Walla River Irrigation District and Hudson Bay District Improvement Company) 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 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.

Little Walla Walla/Spring Branch Dilemma

The Walla Walla River was once a braided river system from the city of Milton-Freewater north to the state border. Today's mainstem channel (formerly Tumalum Branch) was selected through the years of development to become the main vector for high water and fish passage. The river braids west of the mainstem 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 naturally flow to the stateline 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 mainstem 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 this area of the basin, have documented fish mortalities, aquatic and riparian terrestrial species absence, domestic and irrigation wells drying up, and the loss of their legal surface water rights they traditionally could utilize. The Little Walla Walla River monitoring plan 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 discussion. The WWBWC is monitoring the Oregon portion of the Little Walla Walla system. The Washington portion is monitored by the WDFW and WDOE.  For information on the water quality monitoring conducted by the Council, click here.  For information on the variety of monitoring efforts in the basin, click here.

ODA Ag 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 is to be 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.  For more information on the SB1010 Plan, click here.

USACE/CTUIR Feasibility Study

The United State Army Corps of Engineers and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have entered into the second phase of a project aimed at providing more water to the Walla Walla Valley. Four options for providing "new water" are being explored: water storage, water right buy-back, irrigation delivery and on-farm water conservation, and piping from the Columbia River. To complete the feasibility study, engineers, modelers and planners require reach-specific water quality and quantity data to calibrate and test these various "new water" scenarios. The WWBWC is supporting this process by providing cost-effective, high quality data for the effort.  For more information on the Feasibility Study, click here.

Bi-State Habitat Conservation Plan

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 and improve habitat. The WWBWC supplies both technical and planning support to this process.  For more information on the HCP process, click here.

 More information will be posted later on for: Sub-basin planning for Bonneville Power Administration

CIDMP (Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan)