Washington – Restore
"While WWP keeps their focus on water, they understand what it takes to succeed in ranching. They’re trying to find what’s best for everybody. WWP earned my respect."
- Charlie Lehman / Rancher / Methow Valley
Working in partnership with many stakeholders, the Washington Water Project brings funding sources and technical expertise to the challenge of improving flows of clean, cold water to some of Washington’s most important fish and wildlife habitats.
WWP develops water solutions that are individually tailored and beneficial for both the water right holder and fish habitat. To do this, WWP pursues a wide variety of projects, including:
- Water right donations, purchases, and leases to the Trust Water Rights Program for instream flow
- Drought year leasing programs
- Point of diversion changes
- Surface to groundwater changes
- Diversion reduction agreements
- On-farm efficiencies
- Reverse Water Right Auctions
- Conveyance system irrigation efficiencies
- Water Banks
Here are some examples of our work:
Auctioning Water Rights on Manastash Creek
Manastash Creek - before
WWP organized a reverse water rights auction, which was met with great success – in fact, it was the first successful reverse water rights auction in Washington State. The goal of the auction was to put an additional three cubic feet per second of water instream by allowing willing water right holders to auction a partial or whole water right. All water right holders in Manastash Creek with surface water rights were invited to submit bids for the auction. The acquired water rights are being placed in the Department of Ecology’s Trust Water Rights Program, where they will be protected as instream flow in Manastash Creek. This success highlights the value of using innovative and market-based incentives for instream flow improvement.
Manastash Creek - after
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Over 89 cents from every dollar contributed to TU goes directly into conservation programs.
Spotlight: Return of the Methow
Along the banks of the Methow River near Winthrop, on land that has been in his family for 100 years, Charlie Lehman remembers: “When I was a kid, I used to catch 25-pound fish right here,” he says. Thanks to a series of voluntary agreements with WWP, Charlie is providing a major lift to fish and wildlife by permanently restoring and protecting 4 cubic feet per second of his water right as streamflow. In addition, WWP has helped him achieve a 72 percent improvement to irrigation efficiency that allows him to raise corn and hay with less water and to conserve management time for other projects on the farm. Meanwhile, about 8 miles of meandering side channels will now have sufficient water to reconnect with the Methow River, revitalizing fish refuge habitats that are in short supply.
Spotlight: Entiat River
The lower 12 miles of the Entiat River mainstem are the focus of another project that WWP and Cascadia Conservation District are collaborating on. We worked with landowners to eliminate points of diversions along this stretch of the Entiat River, and instead switched to groundwater as their primary source of water. These changes significantly decreased water withdrawn directly from the river, improved conveyance efficiency, eliminated instream maintenance of diversions and provided an improved and undisturbed natural habitat in the Entiat River mainstem.