MOSES LAKE, Wash. –
The EL 22.1 Landowner Association and IRZ Consulting have announced that the EL 22.1 North I-90 Odessa Aquifer Groundwater Replacement Project has reached an important milestone, as they recently released a 400-page 60% Design and Engineering Report to various federal and state agencies, which means that the EL 22.1 Project has followed all the engineering standards and requirements of the US Bureau of Reclamation.
The EL 22.1 North I-90 Odessa Aquifer Groundwater Replacement Project (EL 22.1 Project) would help deep well irrigators/farmers in the declining Odessa Aquifer Subarea north of I-90 and east of Moses Lake in Washington State by providing surface water from the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District’s East Low Canal to replace groundwater pumping from the aquifer.
The EL 22.1 Project would build a surface water irrigation system (the EL 22.1 System) north of I-90 & east of Moses Lake, WA, which would serve up to 16,000 or more acres of irrigated lands from the East Low Canal to Road W NE, about 10 miles east of Moses Lake.
The proposed EL 22.1 irrigation system would include a new canal turnout infrastructure, a large-scale canal pump station, booster pump stations and approximately 12 miles of large diameter pipeline to provide Columbia Basin Project surface water to various farms and properties.
The EL 22.1 Project is part of the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program (OGWRP). The purpose of OGWRP is to provide surface water from the Federal Columbia Basin Project (CBP) to replace groundwater from declining irrigation wells in the Odessa Aquifer Subarea, reduce the risk of economic loss to the region’s agriculture sector relying on declining and/or failing groundwater wells, and provide relief to the declining water levels in the Odessa subarea aquifer. Additionally, about 50% of the deep well irrigated lands in the Odessa Aquifer Subarea are only marginally irrigated and can only produce lower value crops. Access to surface water from the East Low Canal would allow full irrigation of participating acreage in the OGWRP, thus positively increasing economic impact and benefits as well as tax revenues for the State.
