07/06/05 Lawmakers hear about water initiative

07/06/05 Lawmakers hear about water initiative

Washington Ag July 6, 2005 State lawmakers and their staff attending the recent Washington Wheat Tour heard what they will likely be asked to provide to help solve the depletion of water for deep well irrigators in the Odessa sub-area by completing more of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. Thieme: "The state will have to make a commitment. Something like about 600-thousand dollars over a five-year period." That's Roger Thieme, farmer and member of the Columbia Basin Development League who spoke on the tour about what the group calls the Columbia Basin Water Initiative. He says the vitality of the economy of the area will suffer if 200-thousand acres relying on deep well irrigation are not supplied with surface water. Thieme: "You say well, 600-thousand a year, three-million bucks for the study, that's a lot of money. But if you take a look at what the state was willing to do for Boeing just to get them to re-locate a plant, and I am not condemning that at all. But if you look at the cost of that against the cost of the production in the Columbia Basin, 600-thousand dollars a year for five years is a drop in the bucket." A study done for the Washington State Potato Commission by WSU economists concludes a four-county area in the Odessa sub-area would lose 630-million dollars a year in economic activity and 36-hundred jobs if potato production and processing in the area were to end and the land revert back to dryland wheat production. I'm Bob Hoff.
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