"A bunch of volunteers" from south-central Washington continues to make the pitch for construction of the so-called Black Rock Dam and reservoir to store water for fields, cities and salmon in the Yakima River watershed.

The Yakima Basin Storage Alliance last week offered for public review its "draft Yakima River Basin Environmental and Salmon Restoration Act." It calls for development of a Black Rock Water exchange system, habitat improvements, fish passage devices for dams and water conservation, among other measures, and promises "freed" water for irrigators and to enhance flows for migrating salmon.

"We're just trying to get people to think about what can be done" if additional water storage was available in the semi-arid portion of the state, said Sid Morrison, chairman of the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance.

"This is not a formal process," Morrison said of the draft legislation offered by the YBSA for public comment. "This is a bunch of volunteers" formed to lobby for increased water storage in the watershed.

Morrison said he did not know when, or if, members of Congress would actually try to introduce the legislation.

"They've all been very supportive," Morrison said of lawmakers, such as central Washington Congressman Doc Hastings. "But they're probably not ready to go that far yet."

Hastings, for example, prefers to let play out a federal-state process that is evaluating Yakima storage options. One of those options is the Black Rock exchange.

In May 2003 the Bureau of Reclamation initiated the Yakima River Basin Water Storage Feasibility Study with the aim of finding additional water storage is to benefit threatened and endangered species, irrigated agriculture, and municipal water supply. A bill authored by Hastings authorized the study.

In January the Bureau released a draft environmental impact statement on four alternatives, including Black Rock. It said that the new dam-reservoir was technically viable and would likely help salmon and steelhead and provide a surer water supply for farm irrigators and municipalities. But the benefits derived would not come close to paying its costs. The national economic benefits are estimated to be only 16 cents for every dollar spent, according to the Bureau's cost-benefit analysis.

Agency officials say their goal is to complete a final EIS by December.

The Black Rock project would have active storage of 1.3 million acre-feet. It would be filled with water pumped from the Columbia River's Priest Rapids reservoir at times of surplus there.

Water stored in Black Rock could then be conveyed to the lower Yakima Valley and delivered irrigators that now tap the Yakima River. The intent is for the irrigators to use the Black Rock water and leave more water in the Yakima for migrating and rearing salmon and steelhead.

The alliance continues to argue that Bureau study fails to consider significant recreational impacts, understates the salmon recovery benefits, and minimizes the urgency of developing a sustainable water supply.

"The two big questions people ask are: Can we afford it and are there benefits for as many people as we think there are?" Morrison said. The Bureau study pegs overall costs, including interest, at $6.7 billion. The draft legislation pegs costs for the Black Rock exchange at $5.5 billion, with 65 percent of the cost to be paid by the federal government.

Where the two differ more greatly is on the benefit side.

"This is a good buy," Morrison said of the Black Rock project's potential to deliver water to quench the region's growing thirst, provide an ongoing local economic boost through recreation and allow salmon populations to soar.

An independent impact study commissioned by the Alliance found that nearly $8 billion in economic benefit will come from sustaining agriculture, generating tourism, and filling construction jobs tied to the project. Of that total, nearly $3.5 billion would be in recreational opportunities not accounted for by the Bureau's study, according to the YBSA.

Conservation groups have disputed the YBSA's analysis, saying its calculation of economic benefits from recreation are inflated.

"Our past history of studying our water supply problems must come to a conclusion with construction of new water storage infrastructure," according to the cover letter for the draft legislation. "This draft proposal is offered to stop us from walking on the edges of disaster any longer but instead mutually provide a solution to the Yakima River Basin water shortage problem."

"We know that if at the conclusion of the BOR Storage Study we as a community do not agree on a solution, no significant action will occur."

The draft legislation also includes provisions for the acquisition of lands and physical alterations in the major floodplain areas to address constraints which have adversely affected the hydrologic connectivity of these floodplains and the mainstem rivers, and for streamflow improvements and riparian habitat restoration measures in the Yakima basin tributaries.

"This is a fish bill," Morrison said.

If the draft legislation ever became law, it would also authorize the installation of fish ladders, if feasible, on the existing five major dams in the upper Yakima watershed to improve anadromous fishery production.

A Bureau study is ongoing to evaluate the feasibility of installing fish ladders at two of the dams.